Tales Of Zestiria II: Sins Of The Innocent
by Moogle Empress
Summary: A thousand years have passed and gone since the final battle with Heldalf. The world has moved on and yet the Seraphim from that time remained. A new legend, however, was about to begin, when a certain Water Seraph rescues a lone babe and raises him while carrying out both his and his dear friend's dreams. His name is Arthur. This was his and a certain Shepherd's new story.
1. Prologue: Arthur & The Water Seraph

**Tales Of Zestiria II: Sins Of The Innocent**

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Disclaimer: I do not own anything Tales related! Namco owns the series, so please don't sue.

Claim: I do own the OCs and this fan-sequal of mine though but that's not the point. =P

Pairings: None

Genre: Adventure/Drama/Angst/Family/Friendship

IMPORTANT NOTE: This will contain spoilers, lots of them. This is a fan-based sequal after all, so please if you haven't completed the game yet and do not want to be spoiled, please go back now. If have completed the game, carry on ahead. =D

Note: When I was nearing the end of TOZ, this idea popped into my head, since it carries a lot Arthurian Legend themes, I felt that extend on that and imagine what a sequel would look like in my head. Okay, it might never happen, and if they did, it would be far different from this idea. Still, I'm charged and excited to write this! I hope you enjoy reading this first installement. :3

Summary: A thousand years have passed and gone since the final battle with Heldalf. The world has moved on and like most legends, they fade away and become lost in the sands of time. A new legend, however, was about to begin, when a certain Water Seraph rescues a lone babe and raises him while carrying out both his and his dear friend's dreams. This child is called Arthur, and this was his and a certain Shepherd's new story.

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 **Prologue: Arthur & The Water Seraph**

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How long has it been now since the battle at Maotelus's shrine? Where he, his friends and his most precious friend of all, Sorey, made their final confrontation with the Lord of Calamity himself, Heldalf.

Even now, after all these hundreds of years, Sorey still slept, as Maotelus's new vessel, in order to purify the land of malevolence that was tainted by humanity's greed, selfishness and hatred, which in turn transformed Maotelus into a Hellion and brought about a chain of tragic events which resulted Heldalf's descent into becoming the Lord of Calamity, he had become a sacrifice and was reborn as a baby Water Seraph and Sorey...he had been forced into this world far too early and nearly died from being pre-maturely born.

The Water Seraph Mikleo, his fellow Seraphim and the Shepherd's squire and their good friend, Rose, long since passed from this world, knew the fate that awaited Sorey once he made his final choice. To act as Maotelus's new vessel and fall into a millennia-long sleep until the day came when the land was pure enough for Sorey to finally be awakened and freed from his duty.

And so, even though all their human friends have long since passed away and the world grew older around him and his Seraphim comrades and friends, Lailah, Edna and Zaveid, he would wait. He would keep waiting until the day Sorey returned to them.

He won't lie, it has been a very painful waiting game. Mikleo, of course understood and went along with Sorey's decision, as did everyone else was with them that day. But...even though Mikleo had steeled himself for the painful reality that awaited them, it still hurt. A lot.

They had been together for so long, practically inseparable, they shared the same dreams, the same love for ancient ruins and the stories of the past told upon the walls of those ruins. He had taken for granted their close bond, nothing could have prepared him for when Sorey carried out his final task as the Shepherd and the first time that Mikleo had felt so alone without Sorey's presence nearby.

It was like someone had amputated a part of himself when he first tasted the first few decades of existing without Sorey. He never knew just how much he would miss that stupid, naive yet pure-hearted human, who had literally saved the world from being consumed by malevolence. His most cherished friend whom had been abandoned and forgotten by not only time, but the world itself, save for Seraphim who were beside him.

It made Mikleo angry and frustrated at times how quick humans had forgotten about the sacrifice Sorey made to ensure the land would one day be purified and also relationships between humans and Seraphim hadn't taken the steps towards co-existence yet, not to mention the tensions between Rolance and Hyland rising up again, after the 1000 year old truce between the two countries, even the northern continent of Fayrule was acting up. Of course, it had been almost 1000 years, while that's still short for Seraphim, that was a long time for humans.

Mikleo only hoped that Sorey wouldn't be woken up in a time where a Shepherd would be needed once again. Mikleo didn't know if he could handle going through this waiting all over again if another Greater Seraph lord needed purification.

Hopefully, it would never come to that. To kill time until Sorey came back, Mikleo took it upon himself to carry out both his and Sorey's dreams of exploring all the ruins that the world had to offer. He longed for the days when he would explore Mt. Mabinogo with Sorey back when they were children. Damn it, he really misses him.

Mikleo's hair had grown longer during this time, he felt that it would remind him just how long he had existed. He was still very young in Seraph years, but even a thousand years can mature one's soul and he actually quite liked the look, so he tied it up into a ponytail so it would not get in the way when he fought with the remnants of Hellions, there was very few of them now thanks to the on-going purification process carried out by new shepherds and their squires. Still he had to still take care of the occasional normal beast or monster that would pop out.

He had been on-route to another hidden ruin that was rumoured to be about around outskirts of Elysia, almost touching the borders of Fayrule. The beautiful forest known as Myst Forest stretched out like a sea of trees, was tranquil and had been untouched by man or even Seraphim for centuries, the area was brimming with life.

He had never gone this far north of Elysia before, neither he or Sorey had even known about Fayrule until their fateful journey as Shepherd and Sub-Lord, where they overheard the mentioning of Northerners from the Earthen Historia that they gathered, which he now knew as Fayrulians.

He stopped suddenly still when he felt for a moment an aura that he had not felt since the Age of Chaos, the aura of one filled with malevolence. Out of instinct and reflexes, he ran through the forest, swiftly moving pass every tree that obstruct him, while making sure not to lose track on the one generating malevolence, while there was no need for him to be a sub-lord anymore, he kept his pact with Lailah, in case the worst scenario ever happened and a new Lord of Calamity was born. At least he still had the power to purify hellions, or at least the lower ranking ones, for any higher ranked Hellions they would need a Shepherd.

He came to a halt once more when he felt the malevolent aura vanish into thin air, did the hellion leave? Or did it just disguise itself? Nevertheless, he would have to keep his guard up to make sure not to be caught unaware. He looked around his surroundings trying to sense the menace, but however it seem to have fled from the area, thankfully.

Just as he was about walk away, he noticed something odd in the corner of his eye. A woman? Mikleo walked closer to investigate the body of whoever was lying in a pile of woodchips, dead leaves, and dirt. When he came up close to the person, he confirmed his suspicions about it being a woman, and from the look of her wounds, she had been dead for two or three hours.

Mikleo felt a pang of guilt and sadness, could he have prevented this death from happening if he had been here at the exact moment of her murder? It looks like it was a very deep wound made by a Hellion, must have been the one that he had sensed just a few moments ago. However, if the hellion had killed her hours ago, why did it linger until now?

Upon further investigation, based on the clothes she wore, she must have been a Shepherd! She had the customary garb of the Shepherd that was now stained in dry blood. She had pinkish-red hair that was also caked in dry blood as it seemed she had cracked her skull which caused her crown to bleed before her death. She had a sword in one of her hands, meaning that she had bravely fought back at whatever attacked her to her dying breath. He wondered who this girl was, she wasn't a Shepherd he was familiar with, perhaps Lailah would know?

That was when his hearing picked up something he never expected to hear out in the wilderness like this, the soft whimpers of a baby.

Standing up and following the source of the noise to what looked like a hole underneath a dead tree stump, the thick dead roots helped to keep whatever was on the verge of crying well-hidden from sight. This must have been why the Hellion had not left until now. Mikleo's presence must have scared it off, it was the only logical reason he could come up with given what evidence he had right now. He exhaled deeply before reaching his hands out to pick up the small bundle that was hiding under the tree stump through the same hole that he heard the whimpers from.

Once he had freed the bundle and held it in his arms, he confirmed that it was definitely a baby. He was no expert on estimating human years, but he had to guess the baby was roughly a month old, way too young to be left without a parent. The child owned big round sky blue eyes that screamed innocence, the small tuffs of hair gave away that his hair colour would sandy blonde.

The small baby had softened it's tiny cries as it looked straight at Mikleo's face, after a few moments in a staring contest, the baby then gurgled in delight, the poor thing was naively unaware that it was now an orphan, then it dawned on Mikleo, the child could see him! Does that mean the child has high levels of resonance? Mikleo couldn't tell for sure, the only one who would know would be once again Lailah.

It would seem the next course of action would be to head for Ladylake and ask the Prime Lord for answers. Besides, there was no way he was going to abandon this child here to die! That would go against everything he had been brought up to believe and respect.

There was nothing he could do for the dead female Shepherd, most likely the mother of the child, besides giving her a proper burial. However, he couldn't leave the child for too long without any kind of nourishment, the child was so young, it could die if neglected for too long. It was all too clear now that the mother had been fighting to protect her child, he would be damned before he let her sacrifice go to waste, not when it had been to give her child a chance to live.

With a heavy heart and even more guilt-ridden he left the area with the child in tow, leaving the mother where she was. He remembered the goats in Elysia, that would provide the baby with some kind of substance. He would need to gather enough for his trip back down to Ladylake.

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It took two days to reach Ladylake, but thankfully the Elysia goat's milk was a success with the baby, Mikleo was kind of surprised of how well-behaved the baby was being, usually they were very loud and demanding at this stage, yet the child was very content with being carried by the Water Seraph and lightly tugging on the side bangs of his hair.

Once he arrived at Ladylake, he hurried over to the Sanctuary where he knew Lailah would be waiting. He was surprised to see Edna and Zaveid also there, at least he could explain to all three of them at once about his...discovery.

After an hour of explaining what transpired in Myst Forest and why he was now carrying a baby. He also found out that the child was also a he, as he discovered when he remembered infants needed to be changed every couple of hours. He was certainly learning things he never knew about humans before now.

"So...let me get this straight. You found this baby in the middle of the woods, belonging to a dead mother, who so happened to be wearing Shepherd clothing and killed by a Hellion. Yet you think the baby can see Seraphim so you brought him here all the way to Ladylake just to confirm it with Lailah?" Edna summarized in her deadpan tone.

"Yes. What did you expect me to do? Abandon him?" Mikleo gritted his teeth.

"No, that would be totally out of character for you Meebo. I just wanted to make sure I got the whole story." Edna smirked.

"So, Lailah, what's the verdict? Do ya think Mickey boy is right?" The wind Seraphim asked.

"Well...Mikleo is right, the child definitely has high levels of resonance, it would also explain why he had been so calm around us. Yet...something is odd about him."

"Odd?" All three of the Seraphim asked in union at Lailah's answer.

"Well...He is human, but not entirely human, he's half of something else too. I can't tell though, there's a powerful seal placed on him that prevents me from finding out more. Whoever placed this on him was an talented mage."

"You think it was another Seraphim who put it on him?" Zaveid pressed.

"Yes, whoever casted this protection seal on him, was a Seraphim of great power." Lailah nodded.

"His mother was a Shepherd, or at least from her clothes she appeared to be, so perhaps he got his resonance from her?" Mikleo wondered.

The bundle of joy in Mikleo's arms was sleeping contently, unaware that conversation about him.

"So Meebo, what are you going to do now? You've brought him to Ladylake and got your answers. Are you going to give him away to someone? Or take him to an Orphanage?" Edna questioned.

That was a good question...what was he going to do with him? Sure, he could hand him over to a human couple or to an Orphanage like Edna said. But...over the last few days travelling to Ladylake with him, he had gotten attached to the small infant, perhaps it was the solitude life he had been living since Sorey's absence that made him yearn for company. Wouldn't that be selfish of him though? He...didn't know what to do.

"Mikleo, you want to look after him don't you?" Lailah smiled softly.

Mikleo sharply raised his head up in shock and sighed as he looked away. "Was I that easy to read?"

"You are aware that taking care of a human is a lot of hard work, right? Seraphim aren't used to raising every orphaned human we come across." Edna said plainly. She didn't mean anything harsh by it, but it still sounded cold nonetheless.

"What Edna's saying kid, is that are you sure you want to do this? Once you decide, you can't just up and leave him if it gets too tough. I wouldnt be fair on the kid or you." Zaveid told him straight.

For once, Mikleo appreciated the blunt honesty Zaveid gave. The child taken this opportunity to wake up and spout out gibberish nonsense that could only be described as baby talk. His arms were outstretched towards Mikleo, without thinking Mikleo moved a lone finger closer to the baby to which he grasped hold of with both tiny hands then proceeded to nibble on the finger in his mouth. Mikleo blinked a few times, why did he do that? Was this how a parent would react? Mikleo could only imagine.

"If I was a normal Seraph, I'd probably agree. However, I'm not like other Seraphim, am I? Gramps raised both Sorey and I with all the love a person can give and we weren't his flesh and blood either. I would be the worst kind of Seraph if I just left him there and disgraced that memory. Besides, I have a feeling that I was meant to be where I was when I found this baby and his late mother." Mikleo simply answered.

"True, you were previously a human baby yourself, then refashioned as a Seraph." Zaveid shrugged with a big grin. "Sounds like to me, you've made your choice."

"Yeah." Mikleo simply nodded with a soft smile. Yes, he decided to raise this child. Just like how Gramps raised him and Sorey, he just hoped that he would be as good of a role model as their grandfather was.

"So, I guess this means we should be calling you Daddy Meebo now?" Edna teased.

Mikleo's eye twitched but he didn't rise up to the bait.

"Oh that's wonderful! We'll be sure to help out too, right Edna? Zaveid?" Lailah was overjoyed with the decision.

"Naturally, I'll teach him everything that he needs to kno-"

" **Absolutely not.** " Mikleo shot down. "If anyone's doing the education around here, it's Lailah and I."

"What about me?" Edna glared.

"...I'll think about it." Mikleo glared back.

"Aw c'mon, at least give me at least some role model job!" Zaveid whined.

"Comic relief, probably." Edna suggested.

When Zaveid and Edna started a verbal contest with each other, to see who could get the last word, Lailah walked over and sat on the bench next to Mikleo.

"I think you'll make a great role model for him Mikleo. He seems so happy to be just around you."

"I hope so...I was thinking of calling him Arthur. I found that name stitched into the blanket so I thought that was the name his mother gave him. I wanted to keep her memory alive somehow." Mikleo nodded.

"Sounds perfect for him." Lailah clapped. "Is it okay if I hold him?"

Mikleo carefully moved the bundle into Lailah's arms, thankfully, the baby didn't seem to mind being with Lailah, although he did look upset that he wasn't in Mikleo's arms anymore. Once looking up at Lailah's face though, he smiled at her.

"Amazing to think that all humans start from something so small and innocent." Lailah looked sad, she was probably thinking about to the Shepherd Michael and all the other humans they had met who generated malevolence, whether it was by good intentions or evil ones. She would make sure that the baby she held right now would not make the same mistakes.

"I think Sorey would have really loved this idea too." Mikleo told her.

Lailah smiled warmly and nodded. "I agree, this seems like something he would really love to be a part of. I do have to wonder though, could it be the father was a Seraph?"

"Really? Is it possible for a human and Seraph to have a child together?" Mikleo was caught off-guard by Lailah's guess.

"This is just a theory though, I can't say it's the truth." Lailah smiled nervously. "However, yes, the desire between both of them is powerful enough, they can have children with each other. However, such children born from union like that are often met with scorn and malice from both sides, so they are very rare."

"...That's awful. Then if that woman was a Shepherd, and she fell in love with one of her Seraphim..."

"Uhhh...Oh my! What beautiful big blue eyes the baby has!" Lailah then spoke out randomly.

"Of course that would be under oath too." Mikleo rolled his eyes. "No matter, I think I can gather for myself the consequences. I feel really bad for both the child and mother, even if it is considered forbidden, they shouldn't have to suffer like that."

"We still don't know that for sure yet, I could be wrong for all I know. As long as the protection seal over Arthur remains, I can only just assume." Lailah shook her head.

"Well, regardless of what he is, my answer would remain the same. For now, we'll just raise him like any normal person, after all, he's still a living being in the end, he turns out to be Half-Seraph or whatever." Mikleo decided.

"Hehehe...You've really grown up, Mikleo." Lailah laughed.

"What? You mean I wasn't mature before?" Mikleo felt hurt.

"No, for a moment, you reminded me of Sorey. It just seemed like something he would say." Lailah giggled.

"Well, that's just who Sorey is." Mikleo smiled sadly. "I guess even he's rubbed off on me, or maybe it has always been there and I haven't noticed until Sorey wasn't around anymore."

"Mikleo..." Lailah looked with sympathy before handing the child, Arthur, back into Mikleo's arms, to which the baby giggled happily in delight.

"Don't worry Mikleo, we'll make sure he's raised right. Just remember, I'm Auntie Lailah~!" Lailah chimed.

"..." Mikleo sweat dropped, she was having way too much fun with the idea. "Seriously though, make sure Zaveid isn't left alone with the kid even for a moment, I shudder to think what kind of lessons he would teach him." Mikleo told her, which Lailah nodded in agreement.

He looked back to see Edna and Zaveid still bickering with each other. He softly smiled, yes, this would work, he didn't know why, but this boy was special somehow, he just didn't realize then just how special.

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And there is the Prologue! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this story. Sorry if this feels short, but I felt a prologue was important. I promise next chapter will be longer. :3

Please read and review and let me know what you think of the story.

Hopefully I'll be able to get next chapter up shortly. Next chapter coming up: Chapter 1: Return Of the Shepherd. Until then, Happy Reading everyone.

Moogle Empress out!

Moogle: Kupo!


	2. Chapter 1: Return Of The Shepherd

**_Chapter 1: Return Of The Shepherd_**

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Fourteen years have passed by since Mikleo's fateful encounter with the small orphaned baby he found that day, and his decision to raise him alongside Lailah, Edna and Zaveid.

Needless to say, it turns out Mikleo's worse fears were thankfully wrong. Arthur had adapted to being raised by just four Seraphim quite well, given that a majority of humans couldn't see them so he learned quickly to be more careful about what he said in highly populated areas, otherwise they might write off poor Arthur as crazy.

Arthur was waiting inside of Inn in Ladyake for Uncle Mikleo to come back with new information about any ruins that had yet to be uncovered. He wasn't alone though, Big sis Edna, Aunt Lailah and Uncle Zaveid were waiting there with him.

He had mid-long sandy blonde hair that reached to his shoulders with eyes as blue as the sky.

His attire was a black under suit that was well hidden underneath a green hunter jacket, matching green shorts and a quite long, brown, old but much loved scarf wrapped around his neck, with the two ends dangling in mid-air but yet never caused him any trouble. Well, if you didn't count getting the scarf caught on some trees on occasion that is.

He lastly had fingerless hunter gloves, black socks that just reached his kneecaps and black adventurer boots. He also had a belt around his waist where it had multiple satchels, where he kept a lot of gels, herbs, potions and basic essentials that any explorer of ruins would have.

Arthur had spent his whole life raised by only four Seraphim who acted as his pillars of support and his family. It's true most people couldn't see them so he probably just looked like a wandering street urchin to most, but he didn't care, he couldn't have asked for better role models in his life.

Zaveid is clearly the most lively member of their small family. He had always been trying to teach Arthur how humans lived and how to deal with them, especially since Arthur had high resonance when many others didn't. He sometimes gave out decent advice that helped Arthur a lot in the past. Of course, he would also try to teach him something about girls and flirting, which Arthur still couldn't understand since he had no moral behind the words and he had been more interested in the intellectual side of his education.

Usually his aunts and Uncle Mikleo would gagged and tie him up somewhere before he could say anything they felt could 'damage' Arthur's innocence as Arthur grew into early adolescence.

Aunt Lailah acted more like a mother than a Aunt, or at least that's how she came across to Arthur, then again, other than Big Sis Edna, she was the only female role model who looked the part. She had taught him about how to control his strange gifts once they had started to show themselves when he had turned six years old. He wasn't sure why but for some mysterious reason, he could cast wind Seraphic Artes, something humans shouldn't be able to possess at all. Aunt Lailah and Uncle Mikleo never really went into the details of where and how they found him.

All they told him that his birth mother had been killed by Hellions and they had no idea where or who his father was. He knew they told him nothing but the truth, but there was something they were holding back from him, he was certain, but he wouldn't press it out of them. He had faith that they would tell him when he was old enough to handle it. He was after still a child in their eyes.

When he accidently casted his first wind seraphic arte, he had been terrified of himself. Lailah had comforted him and helped him to become more confident in his ability to control his supernatural gifts.  
Now, everyone's but mostly Lailah's teachings, he could now use his gifts at will, although his control over them is still lacking, he made sure not to let his emotions get the better of him, otherwise his artes could go out of control, and that would be bad...very bad.

Aside from that Lailah also acted as her teacher alongside Mikleo, teaching and telling him of many stories during her long life as Prime Lord, although she came up with some very random ones whenever Arthur questions a little too much the role of the Shepherd and more intricate details of it. Everyone told him that due to an oath Lailah made long ago, she was not allowed to give out certain pieces of information, so she would blurt out random things to advert the crisis.

Arthur was naturally upset but if his Aunt Lailah was bound to a oath, there was nothing he could do but accept it. He had adapted to it now and accepted that some mysteries would remain a mystery.

Now Big Sis Edna...technically she is his aunt too, but she refused to be called that and demanded to be called 'Big Sis' by Arthur. Fourteen years living with the Earth Seraph had taught him one thing. You **never** fight with the Earth Seraph Edna, because you'll always lose to her witty comebacks even though she always calm and collected about everything. Not even Uncle Mikleo stood a chance against her.  
So she became known as Big Sis Edna to Arthur, if he accidently called her Aunt Edna, she would whack him with her umbrella. That umbrella of hers was truly a lethal weapon despite it's deceivingly weak appearance. That being said, she did teach him not only also how to control his abilities, but acted as his sparring buddy when Mikleo was too busy or away ruin-hunting.

She would never admit it, but Edna really liked the idea of being an elder sibling, she had told him about her older brother Eizen who been corrupted by malevolence and transformed into a Dragon, which resulted them in having to put him out of his misery in order to save him. She was so calm about the whole thing, but Arthur could tell that she really missed him. And in a way, Arthur did see her as an older sister, since she was still a little childish herself wth the way she retorts to everything.

And then there was Uncle Mikleo, the one who had found him and made the choice to raise a human, even though he had all reasons not to. He really couldn't imagine what his life would be like if the Water Seraph had given him away to an Orphanage. He had been very thankful that it didn't end up that way.

He followed Uncle Mikleo everywhere...almost...Mikleo refused to let him explore ruins with him until he felt he was old enough. When he became eleven years old, Mikleo finally caved in and allowed him travel with him. Mikleo did feel bad about waiting this long to let Arthur into ruins when he and Sorey had been exploring ruins since they were children, but over the years, he developed what Edna liked to tease him with the title of 'Mother Henleo mode'.

He had become very protective over him and worries when Arthur is out of his sight for too long. Now he knew how Gramps must have felt when he and Sorey wandered off to the ruins outside their hometown or even after they left Elysia.

It wasn't like Arthur couldn't look after himself, he had been able to kill monsters by himself before, but that didn't stop Mikleo from wanting to protect him to the best of his abilities.

When he wasn't exploring ruins, he acted as both Arthur's teacher and sparring partner. Mostly teacher though, Arthur had a natural curiosity and fascination for ruins just like him and Sorey (much to Zaveid's disappointment). Arthur's favorite lessons involved Sorey mostly but also the Era of Asgard as well. When Mikleo would talk about the Shepherd Sorey and their quest to end the most recent Lord of Calamity Heldalf, Arthur's eyes would shine alight, especially more so when he learned Shepherd Sorey loved ruins too and he was Uncle Mikleo's best friend from childhood.

He would also tell them of their friends that they have gained and lost. Dezel, a Wind Seraph who had died to save Sorey's squire and good human friend, Rose from a Hellion at the cost of his life. Rose, who as mentioned was Sorey's squire, a good friend to all of them and was secretly the boss of an assassin's group known as the Scattered Bones. Like all human lives, she grew older till she passed away from old age, while spending her life to help purify the land and help increase the rise of squires and Shepherds alike. And then there was Princess Alisha Diphda who had spent her whole lifetime ensuring that an era of peace lasted until her dying day.

They also had other human friends like the Captain of the Platinium Knights, Sergei, who had also passed on as the wheels of time continued onwards while time remained still for the Seraphim.

As far as Uncle Mikleo told him, Sorey was still sleeping at the ruins of Maotelus's shrine and would remain there until the land of Glenwood was purified from all the malevolence that was caused by humans. He always looked so sad and distant when he talked about Sorey, he knew they were very close, but perhaps Arthur underestimated just how close.

He hoped that the day that Shepherd Sorey would come back would be very soon. Not only would he be honoured and excited to meet him in his lifetime, but if it would make his family happy since they all missed their Shepherd very much.

Arthur was taken out of his train of thoughts when Edna raised her voice. "Hey, are you going to stare at your food all day?"

"Oh! Sorry! I was just lost in thoughts. I wonder when Uncle Mikleo will be back?"

"Oh don't worry about Meebo, nearly every human in this city lacks the ability to see Seraphim. Besides, he might look delicate, he's tougher than he looks."

"Hahahaha, Mickey would faint from shock if he overheard that." Zavied snickered.

"Which is why you will not tell him I said that, unless you forfeit your life to me." Edna warned with her 'tell anyone and I will kill you' look.

Arthur chuckled at their antics before taking another bite of his mabo curry bun.

Lailah was the first to turn her head towards the door when she saw the door open to reveal Mikleo.

"Uncle Mikleo!" Arthur heard the noise and quickly turned his head to greet him.

Mikleo gently ruffled the fourteen year old's hair before looking at everyone. "Well, apparently there's an rumoured ruin on the outskirts of Ladylake."

"And how did anyone not discover this ruin before us?" Edna gave a blank look.  
"According to the rumors its well hidden." Mikleo shrugged.

"So was the Lefay temple, but we found it." Edna countered.

"Do you have to counter every little thing I say?" Mikleo retorted.

"I'm only stating the truth. Honestly humans must only use eyes for decorations."

"Could it there be some kind of illusionary arte over the ruins so that it would remain undiscovered? I've read a book back in Marlind that some Seraphs used illusionary Seraphic Artes to keep the tombs of ancient kings safe from tomb raiders."

"Actually, you could be on to something there, Arthur. Where did you find a book like that in Marlind of all places?" Mikleo gave some thought to Arthur's suggestion, it was very possible that the ruin was protected by such an arte, but it would depend on the age of the ruin for the theory to be accurate.

"Atakk found it for me~" Arthur grinned.

"...Seriously?"

"Yeah! He said he found it while digging around the deeper parts of the old museum before it got renovated. He kept it with him this whole time, but then he gave it to me when we were in Marlind." He answered.

"Who knew that the little Normin was such a klepto and a horder?" Edna bluntly stated.

Arthur dug around in his leather pouch that he took with him everywhere and brought out the said book that Attak gave him. He then handed it over to Mikleo.

It didn't take long for the Water Seraph after flipping a few of the pages to see what Arthur meant. "You're right, it does say that illusionary Seraphic Artes were created to deceive not only tomb thieves but keep their sacred temples from being defiled. They only started using those kind of artes not long before the fall of the Era of Asgard though, we don't know how old this ruin is yet."

"Would this ruin be the one rumoured to hide an ancient temple that existed before Ladylake was founded?" Lailah wondered.

"Yeah, that's the one. Do you know about it Lailah?"

"Ummm...Oh this curry bun is so delicious!" Lailah sweat dropped before continuing to eat her bun.

"Random mode again?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you boys have fun in that illusionary ruin of yours, I'm going to stay here for now, they're celebrating their one thousand year anniversary of the end of 'The Battle of Glavein Basin'. I want to see what kind of fake speech they'll give for such an occasion." Edna shrugged.

"Are you two remaining as well?" Mikleo turned to Zaveid and Lailah.

"Yup, I wanna relax for a while and besides, not every day that you're here on the day of such once in a lifetime event, well for humans anyway. It's gonna be packed in a few days time and all the babes will be there." Mikleo only rolled his eyes at Zaveid's response.

"Yes, I would like to remain here as well. Have fun ruin-spelunking you two~" Lailah smiled although for some reason to both Mikleo and Arthur it felt forced.

"I guess it's just you and me then, Arthur. Shall we start our search?" Mikleo turned to the young teenager.

"Yeah!" Arthur quickly finished off his food before jumping out of the chair and following Mikleo out of the Inn. "We'll be back soon guys!" He waved energetically to them before closing the door behind him.

Lailah sighed sadly. "Mikleo, Arthur, please forgive me."

~o0o0o0o0o0o0~

The first thing he saw as his senses slowly came back to him was darkness, his body felt numb and heavy as if he had not used it in centuries yet he also felt weightless, floating in mid-air by some unknown force. He tried opening his eyes, yet they wouldn't open, they felt too heavy to open completely yet.

 _"Shepherd Sorey, am I correct?"_ A voice echoed in his mind, although the owner of the body was formless and had no face, his mind's eye was able to see a ball of small light in the distance.

"Who...who are...?" Sorey's voice felt cracked and dry but somehow his voice was still heard.

 _"I am Maotelus, the Seraph Lord that governs over the four Seraph Lords and guards all of Glenwood from the malice of malevolence. You are the one who offered your body as my vessel until the earth of Glenwood was purified once more, without once a selfish thought. I must thank you, not only did you prevent me from becoming a Hellion once more after Heldalf's defeat, but also in turn purified myself of the malevolence wrought by humanity's sins."_

"Oh wow...um, this is the first time I've actually spoken with an actual Seraph Lord, I'm... a little lost for words."

He felt a low rumble that resembled a deep chuckle. _"Even after all this time, your spirit remains as pure as it did the day of our binding. However, the time has come for you to awaken, brave Shepherd, there is an ancient terror from the distant era of Asgard, the same one who brought the peaceful era between humanity and Seraphim to an end, he has broken the seals over his soul in my absence and now he seeks to return to finish what he had begun. To bring an end of both humans and Seraphs alike."_

"So there's another Lord of Calamity?"

 _"Indeed, the one who begun it all, he is known as Mordred, the Dark Seraph. Although by the chosen Shepherd of that era and his Seraphim allies who fought beside him, he was quelled but not destroyed, in an act of mercy, he was sealed away in hope that no one would ever unleash him upon the world again, there was also a hope that he would be purified by time's flow."_

"...I get the feeling there's a larger story behind Mordred's descent into being the first Lord of Calamity, isn't there?"

 _"Correct. However, as I have told you, I acted as one of the seals over Mordred's soul, which had been undone in my depths of insanity. This thoughtless action of mine allowed a part of Mordred's soul to seep back into the world and sow part of the malevolence which only caused more harm and suffering during the Age of Chaos. Forgive me."_

"You were just as much as a victim as well, Maotelus, you can't take all the blame. However, you said only one of the seals broke, that means there are others?"

"There are three others seals around the world that remain untouched, no doubt Mordred is already planning to send his Hellions to undo them. Which is why you must return, Shepherd Sorey, I believe you are only one who can finally free Mordred from this cycle of self-destruction. Your Seraphim friends of old are still alive and well, however, there is one other Seraph that you must seek out for aid, a victim of Mordred's betrayal, a Seraph Oracle known as Merlin, you will find him sealed within the ruins of Avalon Temple, it is hidden from the eyes of man, however, my wisdom will guide you to where you shall find it."

"..."

 _"I now free you from your duty as vessel, brave Shepherd. I will however leave a link between us, in case the worst should happen and the continent of Glenwood becomes foul with malevolence once more, I will take shelter in your body once more rather than risk becoming Hellion a second time."_

"I understand. I accept that agreement." Sorey felt a smile on his face.

 _"I wish you luck, child, go and venture forth, oh ye who is pure of heart, mind and soul. Farewell, brave Shepherd."_

And with that a blinding light engulfed the darkness around him, and he felt him drop as all of his five senses returned to him at once.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0~

Sorey's snapped wide open, only to see the clear blue skies above him, the chirping of birds flowed through his ears and his sense of touch made him realize he was sleeping in a bed of grass and flowers.

Sorey's body still felt very heavy and hard to move, but eventually he felt his strength return for him to push his body to sit upwards and look around the surroundings. Wasn't this...Camlann? Well it certainly had a massive improvement! You would never have thought that it was so thick with malevolence from the picture of pure beauty that laid before him.

He saw there was a lake and realized just how thirsty and hungry he was, then again, he had spent who knows how many years acting as a sleeping vessel. He crawled over to the lake and taken a look at himself before proceeding to cup the water in his hands and drink from the lake. Thanks to the purification, the water was clean and fresh, so no risk to Sorey's health which Sorey was grateful for.

He had noticed that he had not aged a day since becoming Maotelus's vessel. He still wore the same clothes, he looked the same and even still had his weapon from that day he fought with. It was almost like time had just frozen for him while the world moved on without him. Maybe this was what it felt like to be abandoned by time...like Mayvin.

He had no time to ponder on this though, he had to find Mikleo and his other Seraphim friends to prevent everything they had worked so hard to achieve over these countless years to be destroyed in a matter of seconds.

It was kind of bitter that his reunion with his dear friends would end up being to save not only Glenwood but the whole world this time from facing complete genocide of both Humans and Seraphim. He recalled Maotelus's words, he needed to find this Avalon Temple, thanks to the active link between him and the Seraph Lord, he was able to see where the ruins were exactly though his mind's eye.

Knowing where to go, after drinking enough from the lake, he stood up, feeling a little wobbly in the legs but managed to straighten himself and ran across the flourishing field of what used to be Camlann to Lakehaven Heights.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0~

Mikleo and Arthur spent the whole morning combing the entire area of Lakehaven Heights trying to find this elusive ruin. If it was hidden by an illusionary arte, Mikleo and Arthur should still be able to sense it.

"I have to give the ancient people of the Asgard some credit, they didn't want this ruin to be discovered by anyone." Mikleo sighed in defeat.

"We can't give up yet, Uncle Mikleo, is there something we probably overlooked?" Arthur wondered.

"Well, the people who said who have seen this ruin appear said that it was raining when they saw it." Mikleo recalled.

"So if we use water artes, we can cause the barrier that creates the illusion to cancel out?" Arthur suggested.

"That might work, but where would we even begin, it could be anywhere in the area." Mikleo nodded.

Arthur stretched his arms and was about to lean on a big boulder, but his body passed completely through it, he gave out a panicked cry when he fell backwards and landed ungracefully on his rear.  
"Arthur! Are you okay?" Mikleo called out in a worried tone.

Arthur sat up and noticed that there was a shimmering wall in front of him, it was almost like looking in a mirror, except this mirror felt alive and caused wave movements. He could see Mikleo through it. Out of curiosity, he out-stretched his arm and pushed his hand through the barrier, there was no resistance.

"Hey, Uncle Mikleo, I think I found the barrier." He then took hold of Mikleo's arm and pulled him through.

"That was an impressive illusionary arte, but never mind that, Arthur, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, my back just feels a bit sore from hitting on the floor." Arthur pointed to the mossy rock-surface that made up the ruins' foundation.

"So...this is Avalon Temple. It was mentioned in the Celestial Record as a place that once served as an both a shrine and an observatory for reading the stars."

"Reading the stars?" Arthur tilted his head.

"In the past, both humans and Seraphim believed that one's future could be foretold by reading the stars." Mikleo smiled as he explained.

"...Is that really true?" Arthur questioned.

"No one knows for sure, but it is a romantic thought to think that. To be honest, I'm more interested in what the stars remember from the past than their fabled powers of prophecy." Mikleo shook his head.

"Yeah, the stars have been around way longer before humans and seraphim were a thing." Arthur smiled at the thought.

"Indeed. Anyway, since we found our target, time for a little ruin expedition, ready to go?"

"Yup! Let's go!" Arthur punched the air before rushing ahead.

"Arthur! Wait up, don't go off on your own!" Mikleo warned as Arthur rushed off to the Temple's entrance. "...Ugh, in some ways he reminds me of him way too much." Mikleo sighed deeply. "Exploring these ruins is not the same without you, Sorey."

"Uncle Mikleoooo~" Arthur waved up to the Water Seraph at the top of the staircase that led up to the front entrance of the ruins. Wasting no more time, Mikleo started to climb up the staircase himself.

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0~

The inside of the ruins were just as impressive as the exterior, murals depicting the rise and daily life of the Asgard Era, even some discoveries that were made that era.

Although the temple has seen much better days, vines and moss have covered the many pillars with plant life and dense vegetation. The earthy smell coming from the moss wasn't at all displeasing to their noses, but it was clear this place had not seen another soul wander these walls for a very long time.

"Uncle Mikleo, I'm going to check out this hallway down here." Arthur pointed to the eastern hallway when they came to a crossroad that branched out to three hallways.

"You mean by yourself? I'm not sure that's a good idea." Mikleo didn't like the idea of Arthur wandering this temple by himself, even with the lack of Hellions and monsters nowadays, there was always a risk in exploring ancient ruins like this.

"Oh c'mon! I'm fourteen years old, I can take care of myself just fine. Besides, this isn't the first time." Arthur argued.

"This is a little different, these ruins are very old, what if a part of this place crumbles and you're-"

"I'm not a child anymore, Uncle Mikleo! I'll prove it to you!" Arthur gritted his teeth, annoyed at he couldn't even be trusted to by himself just down the hallway, out of anger, he ran off.

"Arthur!" Mikleo called out but the boy didn't heed him, he sighed. "Now I definitely know how Gramps must have felt like. Maybe Arthur's right, I don't give him enough trust for him to be fine by himself. Well...I just hope he doesn't attract any danger to himself. I would never forgive myself if I let that happened." He decided it was best to just leave Arthur alone and trust him to be okay for now by himself.

He turned to the opposite hallway and begun to head down that direction to explore it more thoroughly.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0~

Meanwhile down the eastern hallway of the ruined Avalon Temple. Arthur was still a little steamed, stomping down the pathway with his arms crossed. "Stupid Uncle Mikleo, can't trust me for one second by myself. It's not like I'm totally useless, okay, he's a Seraph and I'm a human...who can use wind seraphic artes for some weird reason but that doesn't mean anything. Just because he's older than me, he thinks he knows everything. Well...okay a lot older than me, damn it." Arthur huffed.

When he came into a large open room, he saw it was covered murals, although worn from neglect, there didn't seem damaged by the passage of time due the lack of cracks that would usually allow water and air to seep through.

Arthur seemed to have forgotten his anger as he was awed by the sight before him. "Oh wow! The murals still look like they've only been painted on the walls only yesterday, okay, the paint used is starting to show it's age but a scholar can still learn so much from such a well-preserved piece of art like this!" Arthur gushed with joy at the find.

The glyphs that would be words written in ancient Asgardian tongue were also clear enough to make a proper translation...unfortunately, Arthur hadn't quite gotten the hang of the Asgardian language, even with Uncle Mikleo as his mentor in it. Arthur sighed. "Great, the first archaeological find that I discover by myself and I need Uncle Mikleo's help to understand it."

Arthur still felt too annoyed to go find his Uncle right now, so he decided to do just try and make a rough translation on his own. "Um...okay so this one means...Seraphim...and this one...Time? No...Sage maybe? Man, now I really wished I did pay attention to Uncle Mikleo's teachings on Asgardian language."

That was when Arthur heard a noise from above him, he glanced upwards to see nothing but a dull grey celling with nothing of great interest, save for a few giant cobwebs. He armed himself with his dual swords, posed and ready to attack any monster or Hellion that would try to attack him.

For a few seconds, there was no more sounds of scuffling or movement from above him, just as he gave a sigh of relief, he heard the noise again only getting louder and louder with that sounded like a...scream?

A small hole in the celling revealed itself with a person heading for the hard tiled floor below it. Out of instinct and reflexes, Arthur quickly casted a wind arte directly blow where the person was about to fall and directed the body sideward instead, however, due to his still inexperienced control, he couldn't control just how strong his arte was and caused the person to crash right into one of the mural walls.  
Arthur gasped in shock and rushed over to check on the person. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay? You haven't broken anything, right?"

"Owch...Well, that could have gone much better. My weight must have caused the floor to give way." The person groaned in pain, easing his poor head from having crashed headfirst into the wall.

"Um...excuse me? Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I couldn't control my wind arte properly."

That was when the person noticed the sandy blonde haired youth next to him. "Oh, hey were you the one who broke my fall by using that wind arte? Thanks! I probably would have ended up with worst injuries than a bruised head if you hadn't done that." The person beamed brightly.

Arthur blinked a few times at the cheerful response, not quite what he expected to hear from someone who almost could have broken his spine had he not done anything. "Uh, you're welcome? Anyway, are you okay? I have some apple gels with me if you need anything to ease or mend-"

"Nah, I'll live. I'm used to this kind of thing by now, you'd be amazed how many times this happened. By the way, why are you here? I didn't think anyone could find this ruin because of the illusionary arte that was used over this temple."

"Oh...well, my Uncle and I actually found this place by luck ourselves, we heard rumours this ruin."

"Oh wow, so there's other explorers other than me and Mikleo huh? Glad to hear it."

Arthur's mouth widened in shock. "You know Uncle Mikleo?"

"Wait, Uncle Mikleo? Are we talking about the same guy here?"

"A Water Seraph who likes to explore ruins, is he the same person?" Arthur nodded.

"That's Mikleo! No way, when did he become an Uncle? Just how long was I asleep?!"

"Okaaay, anyway, if you know Uncle Mikleo that means you can see Seraphim too, that's really great. So I'm not the only one in Hyland! My name is Arthur, and you are?"

"Me? My name's Sorey, nice to meet you, Arthur." Sorey smiled brightly.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0~

And so our Shepherd and the young boy also raised by Seraphim meet, the reunion between old friends is close, but who is Merlin? Even more importantly who is this Dark Seraph known as Mordred, the first Lord of Calamity that threatens to eliminate all humans and Seraphim from the world?

All will be answered in due time. :3

Please read and leave review the story if you can. I would like to hear your thoughts of how the story is progressing. =D

I hope you are enjoying the story so far and hope to see you again for the next chapter. Chapter 2: The Reunion Of Old Friends.  
Until next time, happy reading! Moogle Empress out!  
Moogle: Kupo!


	3. Chapter 2: Reunion Of Old Friends

_**Chapter 2: Reunion Of Old Friends**_

* * *

Arthur sat there, frozen in shock and disbelief at what he just heard. This was Sorey? The Shepherd that he heard so much and idolized from the tales the Seraphim in his family spoke of proudly?

"So you're the Shepherd Sorey that I've heard so much from Uncle Mikleo and the others! This is such a great honour! Can I shake your hand, please?" Arthur went starry-eyed and outstretched a hand out to Sorey.

"Uhhhh...Sure?" Sorey was lost but shook it regardless. Arthur seemed overjoyed from the whole thing. Sorey then noticed the giant mural room they were in. "Wow, this room is incredible! The murals still look so new but the temple is in ruins. The room itself must have been designed to withstand long periods of time without decay." His eyes shined with wonder and amazement of the well-preserved room.

"...Wow, Big Sis wasn't kidding when she said you're as ruin crazy as Uncle Mikleo." Arthur sweat dropped.

"Huh?"

"Never mind. So if you're here, does that mean Glenwood is purified of malevolence?" Arthur questioned.

"Yeah, or at least pure enough for Maotelus to make the earth his vessel again." Sorey nodded.

"Ah I see. That's good to hear. That does also explain why there isn't so many Hellions and monsters in Glenwood anymore. You've been asleep for a thousand years, you know." Arthur smiled.

"A thousand years?! Whoa...I knew I was going to be asleep for a long time, but I didn't think that long." Sorey blinked in surprise.

"What was it like? You know...sleeping for all those years?" Arthur wondered.

"Well...really...it felt like just falling into a deep sleep. It only felt like a few seconds to me, hard to imagine it's been a thousand years since then. Still can't get my head around it."

"I can only imagine, for you it probably felt like a short nap, but for everyone else, the world moved on from the Age of Chaos." Arthur nodded.

"If it's really been a thousand years, then I guess Rose, Alisha, Sergei and all the other humans that I've known are already..."

"Mr. Sorey..."

"H-Hey! It's okay, really! I knew the consequences of my choice and I don't regret it, but...I just feel sad that I'll never get to see them again."

"...But as long as you remember them in your heart and keep their memory alive, they're never really gone, right?" Arthur encouraged.

"...Yeah, you're right. Who told you that?" Sorey smiled softly.

"Heh heh, Uncle Mikleo taught me that. He made it sound very convincing." Arthur winked. His mind then clicked again when he remembered that his uncle and the others still didn't know Sorey was back.  
"Oh! That's right! I need to take you to Uncle Mikleo right now, he'll be so happy to see you again!" Arthur quickly stood up and helped Sorey up from the floor.

"Whoa! Okay, okay! Now that I think about it, you called him Uncle Mikleo right? How did you guys meet?" Sorey laughed at Arthur's excitement, he couldn't help but be reminded himself as a kid or even Mikleo when he was still a child too.

"Uncle Mikleo rescued me as a baby. You see, as far as even Uncle Mikleo knew, my mother was a Shepherd herself and she was killed by a Hellion while trying to protecting me, and they don't know where or who my father was."

"Oh...I'm sorry."

"Don't be, I'm not. It's true that I wished I could have known what my real parents, but I'm not upset or regretful over it. I love Uncle Mikleo, Auntie Lailah, Big Sis Edna and Uncle Zaveid, they've all been my family, so I never felt alone."

Sorey grinned and ruffled the fourteen year old's hair. "I see, so Mikleo took a page out of Gramps's book, huh? Can't say I'm surprised, that's just who Mikleo is. Um, so how is everyone then?"

It was Arthur's turn to grin and explained in length about what everyone had been doing during the last thousand years and how they have tried to progress for co-existence between humans and Seraphim. Once he was finished, Sorey was left with a feeling of amazement, so much really has happened since he became Maotelus's temporary vessel.

"So really, only slight progression has been made to bring peace between the two sides, but there's still something holding them back. While there's more people than before who can see Seraphim now, along with the increased rise in Shepherds and Squires, a majority of people still can't see Seraphim.

"I see...Still that's good to hear at least there's been no wars between Hyland and Rolance since then. Besides, a little progression is better than none, right?"

"Heh heh, yeah. I can't argue with that." Arthur smiled and nodded in agreement. "Although they never admitted it, they all really missed you. Especially Uncle Mikleo, he always seemed so sad when he talked about you. Don't tell him I told you that though."

"Yeah, I bet it's been hard on all of them, especially Mikleo. I can already tell I'm never going to hear the end of it from him."

"How did you end up falling through the celling anyway?"

"Errr...I kinda stepped on a weak part of the floor?" Sorey laughed nervously.

Arthur smirked. "Well that was certainly quite an entrance."

"Say, that reminds me, what were you doing in that room by yourself if you're with Mikleo?" Sorey noted.

"Oh...um...I wanted to prove that I didn't need to be watched over every ten seconds, so I kinda ran off and found that room on my own. I was going to go back eventually and show him my discovery but...well...I was still so mad at him for still treating me like a kid, even though I can clearly explore dungeons safely without him coddling me every time we go to a ruin. I mean, I'm fourteen and you and Uncle Mikleo went ruin-exploring when you were children, but he wouldn't even let me go until I just hit eleven years old!" Arthur ranted.

"I'm probably the wrong person to be saying this, but you shouldn't be so hard on him. Mikleo's pretty sensitive when it comes to people that are close to him. Trust me, I've been there, he hates feeling useless. I didn't even let him become a sub-lord because of how stubborn we both were back then, since we were just as protective over each other and neither one of us wanted the other to get hurt." Sorey spoke from experience, he knew all too well just how protective Mikleo can be around people he cared for deeply, to a point where he would be as stubborn as a mule and wouldn't take no for an answer. Like the time when they both had a heated fight because Sorey at first refused to let him become a Sub-Lord in order to help out with the purification.

Of course, Sorey had only meant good intentions when he said those things, Mikleo had always been precious to him, if he had been injured or even worse killed by a Hellion, such a thing would have probably broken Sorey's spirit as easy as glass, thankfully, nothing like that ever happened, although there were some very close calls, like when they fought Heldalf the first few times.

Even during the very first time confrontation with Heldalf, that was the first time that he temporarily had his resonance cut off so he couldn't see or hear his Seraphim friends and again when they confronted Cardinal Forton first time around. That was a horrifying feeling he never wanted to go through.

"Huh...he never mentioned that to me." Arthur bit his lip, now he felt awful for getting so angry with the Water Seraph.

"I didn't think he would. Don't worry, Mikleo won't be mad at you, he's just stubborn like that." Sorey reassured.

"Even so, I should apologise to him. I might have tripped a nerve in Uncle Mikleo."

It took some time navigating the hallways, while taking care of the occasional giant spider here and there, but eventually the came across a blinding bright room, where crystals grew from the light blue walls and the ground and the floor was partially flooded with water, yet it looked so pristine and crystalline. There was a long stone path that lead to a circle platform where a stone tablet placed on an altar stood proudly, the odd thing was that even the tablet didn't look like it had aged or decayed at all, even though this ruin had long since been abandoned. A beautifully carved skylight allowed the warm rays of sunlight to shine down to the altar, also making the water reflect and glimmer in the light. It had a smooth blue jewel shaped almost like a shield with elegant decorations and carvings on the surface.

And there investigating the altar was none other than Mikleo himself.

"There he is!" Arthur whispered to Sorey.

"That's Mikleo?" Sorey blinked. "He's a lot taller than I remember, and his hair has grown out!"

"Really? He didn't always have long hair?" Arthur tilited his head. "Anyway, go ahead, surprise him!" Arthur encouraged with a little push.

"Hey, okay, I get the idea." Sorey kept his voice low enough for Mikleo not to notice them yet.

Just then, the heard the ground rumble slightly below them, and the floor under Mikleo gave way.

"Uncle Mik-!" Arthur was about to run out from his hiding place but Sorey had quicker reaction time, for a moment, the air seemed tense, but Sorey managed to grab hold of Mikleo's hand just before it went out of reach.

Arthur could only just look on as he saw the heart-warming scene unfold before him, Sorey pulled up Mikleo from the newly made hole in the ground, Arthur had never seen such a expression of pure happiness on Mikleo's face before.

"Hey...Long time no see, huh Mikleo?" Sorey broke the silence with a wide grin.

Mikleo only retorted with a punch at Sorey's arm. "Ow!"

"You've spent a thousand years asleep and THAT's the first thing you say to me?!" Mikleo scowled.

"Uhhh, I'm sorry?"

Mikleo just sighed and leaned his head on Sorey's shoulder. "Forget it, I'm too happy to even stay mad at you. You are really here, right? Or is this just an cruel illusion made by this ruin? I swear if that's-"

"Yup, I'm really here Mikleo." Sorey smiled. "Sorry about making you guys wait a long time. Not much else I can say other than...good to be back."

"Heh..." Mikleo smirked. "You haven't changed at all."

Arthur smiled at the sight and decided to stay out of it a little longer for them to savour the reunion.

"That raises the question though, how did you know to come here?" Mikleo wondered.

"Ahh, to be honest, I wasn't expecting to meet again in this place. I was sent here by Maotelus." Sorey explained.

"Maotelus sent you here? Why...?" Mikleo narrowed his eyes in deep thought.

"Well, he said there was a Seraph here called...Merlin, I think?"

"Merlin?" Mikleo repeated.

"Ever heard of him?"

"I think there was a book that I brought with me from Elysia that mentions him, we'll have to research this."

Sorey nodded. "Sounds like a good idea, we wouldn't even know where to start looking here for him. Speaking of that, what's taking Arthur so long?"  
"Arthur's with you? And wait, you met him already?"

"Yeah, I fell through the celling and he helped break my fall with an wind arte. He's just over there." Sorey honestly answered and pointed to the door's archway, where Arthur's head was poking out.

"Your honesty knows no bounds does it?" Arthur sighed in defeat and came out of hiding. He then ran over to Mikleo to see if there was any injuries.

"Are you okay Uncle Mikleo?" Arthur asked.

"I'm alright, don't worry. I'm more concerned about you. Are you okay? Do you see my point now about this ruin being dangerous? This is precisely why you should stay where I can see you. Anything here can happen!"

"Not this again!" Arthur cried out.

"Wow, Arthur wasn't kidding when he said you coddled him." Sorey smirked.

"Say what? What has he been telling you?" Mikleo demanded.

Unknowingly to both Sorey and Mikleo, Arthur noticed that the surface of the smooth gem started to crack, but it didn't end with the just the aquamarine gem, it seemed to spread out from the small cracks, forming bigger and longer lines across the tablet, it looked like it was crack open like an egg any moment.

"Guys! Behind you, the stone tablet on that altar!" Arthur warned them.

The Shepherd and Water Seraph looked in the direction Arthur was pointing, just to see that the tablet had somehow pulled apart sideward almost like if something was trying to claw or break it's way out.  
A ball of formless light faded in out of the thin air, it gave off wispy flames, but it had a gentle glow and didn't seem dangerous.

"No way...Is that a Seraph?" Arthur whispered out.

"Something's wrong, normally Seraphim would manifest completely in the open, but this one is formless." Mikleo noted.

Before anyone could react, the formless ball of light, suddenly launched itself past Sorey and Mikleo, absorbing itself into Arthur's body.

Arthur gave a loud gasp and took a few steps back in recoil of the sudden shiver that coursed through his veins. That was when Arthur began to feel wobbly and unbalanced, he began to find it hard to breathe, almost as the air had thinned greatly.

"Arthur!" Mikleo panicked, Arthur would have fallen to the floor if Sorey hadn't caught him halfway.

"Uncle Mikleo...I...I don't feel so good."

"Mikleo, that Seraph just went inside Arthur just now didn't it? This is the same thing that happened with me just after I became the Shepherd." Sorey recalled.

Arthur couldn't hear what they were saying, his head began to hurt and his body felt more colder than it just moments ago when he felt just fine. For some reason, he now just wanted to sleep.

"He's heating up, this is exactly the same symptoms of what happened to you. We need to get him back to Ladylake right away."

"Got it." Sorey didn't even hestiate to wait as he picked up Arthur, carrying him bridal style.

They could always come back to the ruins since they knew where it was now, but Arthur's condition was more important right now. They wasted no time to leave the room and find an exit out of the ruins.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0~

When Arthur's conscious returned, he slowly fluttered his eyes open, he felt something damp on his forehead and there was a faint pulse of a headache remaining. With a groan, he managed to sit up and look around his surroundings with unfocused eyes.

Something fell off his forehead and picked it up to examine it, turns out it was a wet cloth, why was it on his forehead? Through blurry eyes, he managed to make out that he was no longer in the ruins where he last remembered being and was back in one of the Inn rooms of Ladylake.

Why was he back here? What happened to him? For some reason he couldn't recall the last memory he had before blacking out.

"Is this...Ladylake?" Arthur questioned out-loud to the air.

"Is that what you call this city? I see, so this place is called Ladylake, I don't remember this being here before." An unfamiliar voice echoed in the air that made Arthur jump.

"Who-?! Who is that?" He felt more awake after the realization he wasn't alone in here and with a total stranger.

"Arthur, calm yourself. Wait for your eyes to focus, then you'll be able to see me." The stranger calmly responded and instructed him to wait until his eyes cleared up.

Arthur was slightly hesitant, but he couldn't deny that the stranger was right, his eyes were still a little blurry. So he waited for them to sharpen and focus until he could see clearly once more. Once they did, he restarted his search for the stranger.

"I'm right next to you." The voice directed him. Arthur glanced to the left of him to see a young boy around his age. He had cropped snow white hair with a single strand of hair standing like an antenna. He had golden yellow eyes that shined in the light like glass and his skin was very pale though, almost too unnatural to be normal.

He wore a silver tunic robe with sleeves that went down until they reached the cuffs of his sleeves, which had the insignia of a angelic wing on them. He had grey shorts along with white socks that went up to his knees with brown boots that had no laces, only a zipper that was on the side of the boots. He also had brown fingerless gloves with his middle fingers on both hands covered by the gloves he wore.  
"Ahhh!" Arthur instinctively moved back, but forgot he was on a bed and ungracefully fell of the edge and hit the wooden floor with a loud thud.

The snowy-haired boy cringed and glanced for a moment at the door to see if anyone heard that, but it looked like it went unnoticed. He then coughed to correct himself and approached the young teen. "I would appreciate if you didn't alert the ones you call your family right now. I need to talk with you privately before that."

"Why?! Who are you? How did you get in here? Why are you here? And what happened to me?" Arthur pointed and pressed for answers. He jumped back on the bed and pointed accusingly at him as he continued his barrage of questions.

"And I'll get that to that shortly. However, you need to get back to bed, you're still not well. The process of adjusting your body to my presence is almost done, but it will do you no good if you aggravate it further." The boy told him, helping him back into the bed.

"Ugh, I feel awful, I don't understand I was just fine back at the Avalon Temple ruins...let me think...last thing I remember..." Arthur tried to recall as best as he could but that last part of his memory escaped him.

"I see...So you don't remember the part about the seal over me breaking. I want to sincerely apologise for putting you through this. I would have avoided such a option if it wasn't necessary."

"Necessary...? Seal...?" Arthur repeated, that was when the final piece clicked in and he recalled what happened. "That's right! You forced yourself in my body!" Arthur was about to sit up again but the snowy-haired boy, who was surprisingly strong for his age, managed to pin him back into the mattress.

"Would you stop making your fever worse?! Honestly even that Shepherd was less trouble for Lailah than you are!" He barked before sighing. "I know, what I did was wrong of me. I should have asked permission first before making a pact, but I really was left with little options to choose from when my vessel that acted as my seal broke down.

"That stone tablet was your vessel? Why did it break?" Arthur blinked before something else clicked in that the boy said before. "Wait a minute, pact?! As in...a actual prime lord pact?"

"...Yes, more or less. However, I'm a higher rank than a Prime Lord, but the pact acts very similar. And to answer your first question, the stone tablet was designed to break when a new Shepherd appeared. And lo and behold, a Shepherd appeared, however, he already has a active pact with the Seraph Lord Maotelus, so I could not make a pact with him."

"You're talking about Sorey right?" Arthur asked to which the boy simply nodded.

"I will admit, I had expected to remain sealed forever, from what I gathered from overhearing what your adoptive family was being told by Shepherd Sorey, Maotelus sent him there. That only means one thing, if Maotelus intended to awaken me, Mordred is back."

"...You have completely lost me." Arthur had a confused look plastered on his face.

The boy sighed deeply. "And this is exactly why I wanted to privately talk to you about this before I make myself known to the others. I wanted to reassure you that I am not an enemy, and I have no intention of possessing your body against your will."

Arthur could tell that the boy was telling him the truth, Uncle Zaveid taught him how to read people by their eyes and body language, so he decided to place some trust in him, even though he did force his spirit into Arthur's body, but it looked like he was genuinely concern for Arthur's welfare. "...So...how long was I out?"

"Two days." He answered bluntly.

"Two days? Uncle Mikleo and everyone must be so worried!"

"He was. They all were. I feel guilty for being directly responsible for putting both you and your family through this. But I understand now why Maotelus choose to guide Shepherd Sorey to me, perhaps he also foresaw you as well."

"Huh?"

"Let us start over, my name is Merlin, a Seraph Sage, but I am also one of the Nephilim, the more common name for them is Half Seraph though." The snowy-haired boy introduced himself.

"Half...Seraph?" Arthur repeated the word.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0~

Whew, had a bit of trouble trying to get this chapter right, but I think I got it just right. :3  
I hope you are all enjoying the story so far, things will get more active from here on out I think.  
Please read and review the story, as I would like to hear your thoughts on the story and how it's progressing.  
Join in next time for the next chapter of our tale, Chapter 3: Merlin.  
Until then, Happy reading everyone! Moogle Empress out  
Moogle: Kupo!


	4. Chapter 3: Merlin

**Chapter 3: Merlin**

* * *

In a place unknown to all but those rare few who knew of its existence, a lone man looked out what looks like a ruined ancient city but the sky was painted blood red with malevolence thick in the air.

As of right now, he was using a Seraph's body as his temporary vessel, until he could get his original body back was snatched away from him.

While this Seraph body he was using does contain a good amount of power, none of it mattered compared the unlimited potential of the one he had intended to possess shortly after part of his soul was freed from Maotelus's grasp, but alas, certain events transpired that prevented him from doing that, so he had to make do with this vessel instead. For now though, he would spread malevolence throughout the world, using the easily manipulated humans and Seraphim as his proxies as he gathered his strength.

Humans did have their uses after all, and they were so much fun to play with. Unfortunately, Glenwood's malevolence had dropped a great amount, thanks to Maotelus being purified and the land itself cleansed.

Special actions would need to be taken if they wanted to regain their control over Glenwood. They still had Fayrule, the Northern Continent who weren't as lucky to have a Shepherd like that insufferable human boy who slew Heldalf, oh well, Heldalf had outlived his usefulness anyway. Besides, there was so many other methods of spreading malevolence other than war, although that was the most simple way of doing it.

"Lord Mordred." A woman with raven black hair tied in a neat bun with a butterfly ornament, dressed in a flowing seraphic-like black dress with long sleeves, the dress itself is similar to the clothes worn by Seraphim.

"Ah, Morganna, what brings you here? I beleive I sent you to investigate where the remaining four seals to my confinement were in Fayrule. My patience grows thinner the longer I wait to reclaim my original body."

"I've come with news about that, my lord. While it may still take time to locate the exact locations, I have been able to pinpoint the areas where they could be hidden."

"Good, so it shouldn't be much longer then. Although I expect we will be seeing some resistance soon enough, the Shepherd that took down Heldalf has been awakened eariler than expected. I assume Maotelus has caught wind of our actions."

"You mean _that_ Shepherd? You think he'll pose a threat to our plans?"

"He can try, but even he'll see that I'm no pushover like Heldalf was. He was a pitiful Lord of Calamity, barely worthy to carry that title. Though I do not doubt he will be a nuisance nevertheless."

"What of that hellion Lunnare that you've allowed to join our ranks? Won't he be a problem to control? He seems to be a rebellious sort." Morganna wondered.

"He knows his place. I made sure of that. He knows that if he wants to keep his life, he has to take every order I give him. Especially since I was the one who gave him those nice little upgrades."

"Understood, Lord Mordred, what do I tell the others?" Morganna asked.

"For now, keep them on standby, we'll see just how Lunnare handles the task that I gave him to spread malevolence across Hyland, it's the ideal oppertunity right now, don't you think?"

"How very cunning indeed, my Lord. Using the celebration of that short-lived war as a perfect trigger to spark a new one." Morganna smiled. "And what if Lunnare fails?"

"Oh, if that happens, I'll just have to teach him that failure is not an option that he can make anymore. Nevertheless, I want the others to just observe for now, we won't make the same mistakes that Heldalf made."

"A new age is dawning for our kind, I can just imagine it."

"Indeed. Very soon, the world will witness of the 'Endless Age of the Nephilim', a world where humans and Seraphim have no place in. Everything our kin have endured and the suffering they have ever felt, they will feel a thousand times over."

"You are a beacon of hope to all of us, Lord Mordred. Like I have told you before, I will laid down my life to make this shared dream of ours happen. I will leave you in peace now. I shall let you know if I find the locations of those seals." Morganna bowed respectfully before teleporting away.

The Lord of Calamity continued to stare at the ruined city that once used to be sparkling wonder of the Era of Asgard. He looked at the place with disgust, he had nothing but painful memories of this place, although there was one good thing that ever came out of living here, however...there was no way that person would ever understand, the betrayal part probably since he too betrayed his friend in order to realize this ambition.

The suffering, the mockery, the bitterness, the lies, these were all things his former friend would never understand. While his friend had only seen the good and carried a strong sense of hope, Mordred had seen nothing but the darkness and ugliness of the hearts of men, even Seraphim were guilty of this truth.

No, this was the only way for the world to be saved. If he only he could have made his friend understand this, as of right now, he was most likely reawakened as well, if so, there is no doubt that he will try prevent Mordred from reclaiming his body, the last thing he needed was to face his former friend in combat once more, but it might turn out to be an unavoidable fate.

"For this world to have a future, Humans and Seraphim have to disappear, co-existence, what a laugh. That fabled idealism was dying even during the Era of Asgard. Humans are so arrogant, while Seraphim praise themselves so highly, believing to be above everything, not even realizing that they are just as corrupted as each other. There can be never be peace between them. Such is the way of this world. And I shall be the one who will break this world and rebuild it anew. Just watch, my dear old friend, I will prove to you that my answer is the right one."

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0~

"Yes, Half-Seraph or the more refined term 'Nephilim'. It is what they call those who are born from a human and Seraph parent. A Half-Seraph is essentially a human coupled with an extended life-span and being able to use seraphic artes, usually of only one element."

"Wow, that sounds kinda cool." Arthur grinned widely, but it faded when he saw Merlin didn't seem so overjoyed by it.

"It might sound cool, but it really isn't. Being a Half-Seraph often comes with a heavy price of not being normal and never will be perfect in the eyes of others. I've seen so many of my kin go down a dark path or worse become Hellions or Dragons because of the hatred they felt for the ones who helped give birth to them."

"You see, Humans and Seraphim can have children with each other, if the desire is strong enough from least one of them. While there are indeed those born from this were out of love, a lot of them...well...let's just say less than pure reasons."

Arthur looked puzzled. Merlin decided it was better if he left it at that. It was probably for the best if Arthur didn't know the darker side of such things. "Anyway, moving on, some people are terrified of things that they don't understand or have no control over, Half-Seraphs are usually the ones who have to pay the price when their parents want nothing to do with them."

"So...they get abandoned? That's so horrible, no parent should do that to their child." Arthur shook his head.

"I know. Trust me, I've often wondered that same thought myself, unfortunately for all the powers that I possess, I could never fathom the minds of humans or Seraphim. Even though I know these dark truths, I know that Humans and Seraphim are capable of wondrous and amazing things when they work together. Even with just humans alone, when they work towards a common goal, they can push aside their petty differences and overcome impossible odds." Merlin told him.

"Sounds like you have a lot of respect for humans." Arthur smiled. "Hey, I have a question, am I...a Half-Seraph too?" Arthur asked innocently.

"...You don't know?"

Arthur shook his head. "Not even Uncle Mikleo or Aunt Lailah know for certain. I think they said that there's a protective charm over me that's been with me since I was a baby. They don't know what exactly it's protecting or why it was there to begin with, but that's what stopped them from finding out anything else about me. I know I can cast wind seraphic artes and I can see Seraphim, but I thought I was just a freak with unusual resonance." Arthur recalled from what both of them had told him in the past when he asked both of them multiple times about his origins.

"Ah, I know about it. There's definitely a powerful charm casted on you. I can confirm though that you're definitely the same as me, a Half-Seraph. That means whoever is the Seraph parent was the one who casted that charm on you, but why? It's a very extreme action to take but I can sense the strong emotion of devotion to protect from it." Merlin wondered.

"So... It's true. I'm a child of both races huh? You know I think that's a nice thing. It means if they can fall in love that means they're both the same when it comes to their hearts and feelings, right? Okay, Seraphim are invisible to a majority of humans still, but that doesn't change that we can both laugh when we're happy and cry when we're sad, right? I think people mistake Seraphim for being gods when they're just as human as we are when it comes down to it."

"...I'm...surprised. You're very mature for a fourteen year old to be thinking with this mind set." Merlin looked impressed with Arthur's response.

"Heh heh, well I do have quite an odd family that I learned my values from." Arthur chuckled.

Merlin blinked a few times before sighing with a small smile. "You know, you're an interesting person to be around. I think I'm going to like hanging around you."

"Huh? Speaking of which, don't you have a body of your own? Why were you so desperate to find a vessel?"

"Ah, that's right. I was going to explain that wasn't I?" Merlin nodded in remembrance. He removed the cloth and checked the boy's temperature. "Looks like your fever's broke, that means your body must have finally become accustomed to my presence, and given how vocal you've been this entire time, I'd say you're good enough to move around as well."

"Does this mean I can finally get out of bed?" Arthur pulled off the blanket and sat on the bed.

"Well. There's nothing wrong with your stamina at least." Merlin smirked.

"I still feel a little queasy, but it should go away. Now what was it you were going to tell me?"

"Well...I-" Just as Merlin was about to start explaining. Mikleo, Sorey and the other three members of their small group entered the room, not expecting to see Arthur out of bed and this snow-haired child in front of them.

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0~

Over the last few days, Sorey had caught up with Lailah, Edna and Zaveid, all the while taking turns to look after Arthur. Needless to say, Laliah and Zaveid expressed their relief and happiness to see their Shepherd again while Edna took the 'actions speak louder than words' approach, whacking Sorey with her umbrella and complaining about much of a sleepyhead Sorey was for taking so long to wake up. Everyone knew that translated as 'I missed you, idiot' in her own special language.

Sorey had decided to go check up on Arthur when Mikleo was bringing a clean cloth with him to replace the old one that was most likely on Arthur's head. With Lailah, Edna and Zaveid following just to peek in.

None of them expected to see Arthur seemingly fully recovered along with a unknown Seraph boy with golden eyes.

"What the?! Who are you? Wait, are you that formless light we saw back in the ruins?" Mikleo accused.

"No wait, Uncle Mikleo, he's not a bad person!" Arthur made an attempt to reason with him.

"Quiet Mother Henleo." Edna poked Mikleo with her umbrella.

"Mother...what?" Sorey looked puzzled.

"Just roll with it, Sorey. Just roll with it." Zaveid patted Sorey's shoulder.

"B-but he-" Sorey could swear if Mikleo was a fire Seraph right now, he'd be spitting fire.

"Master Merlin! How wonderful to see you again!" Lailah beamed brightly.

"..." A long silence filled the room before Sorey, Mikleo, Arthur and Zaveid repeated at the same time. "Master?!"

"Lailah, good to see you again too. I see that you've become a Prime Lord, that's quite a promotion." Merlin smiled back.

"Wait, wait, wait..." Arthur tried to grasp the situation. "Oh yeah, you mentioned Aunt Lailah as if you were familiar with her, and you knew she made a pact with Mr. Sorey." Arthur clicked.

"Ah, so you caught that did you?" Merlin simply answered.

"Lailah, you seriously _knew_ who this guy was the entire time? And he's a teacher?" Sorey looked at Lailah and then back at the snow-haired boy.

"Wait, did you know about him being sealed away in the Avalon Temple?" Mikleo asked.

"I..."

"Don't be mad at her. I was the one who made her promise to keep the location a secret." Merlin defended the fire Seraph.

"So, this is Merlin, one of the few Arch Lords that existed during the Asgard Era. Also the first Half-Seraph to ever earn that rank." Zaveid placed a hand over his chin.

"I prefer to be known as a Seraph Sage. Arch Lord sounds a little too...arrogant to me."

"Whoa, really? Does that mean he existed during the Asgard Era?" Sorey became starry-eyed. "Hey wait, what's a Half-Seraph?" Sorey then asked curiously.

"Basically a half-breed between a human and seraph." Edna answered bluntly.

"Big Sis, that's a little..." Arthur cringed at the words.

"No, it's alright, Arthur. She's speaks the truth, though she could use a little more subtlety with her words." Merlin reassured the sandy-blonde youth.

"But it is as Zaveid said, Master Merlin is a gifted man of extraordinary seraphic artes and used them for the greater good and purifying a large number of Hellions. The people were so grateful to him that they made him an Arch Lord and temple guardian of the Avalon Temple. Although Master Merlin prefers to be known as a Seraph Sage rather than an Arch Lord." Lailah explained.

"Wait... **Man**? Errr...isn't he a little short?" Zaveid pointed out.

"Oh! Master Merlin, I forgot, I'm so sorry." Lailah recalled and apologised.

"Lailah, you really need to stop apologising over such small things." Merlin smiled softly at his former student. "Allow me to explain everything of why I'm here and why I chosen Arthur as my host body." Merlin started

Everyone decided to sit down for this, since it sounded important and long.

"Okay, as the one called Zaveid here said, I do not look like my real age."

"Wait, so you're not really the same age as me?" Arthur looked sad.

"Yes, this body you see before you is my new physical body formed by making you my vessel and thus binding us under the power of the pact, therefore, it copied the exact age and body size of my host. So in other words, the pact literally made a twin verison of you, only that it possesses my face and powers, all in order to make up for the fact that I'm currently missing my original body."

"Missing?" Arthur questioned.

"The truth is, the reason why you first saw me as a formless ball of light, was because I was separated from my original body while fighting the first Lord of Calamity." Merlin nodded.

"Oh, that's the one called Mordred right? Maotelus mentioned him." Sorey recalled.

"Correct. My final move during that fight managed to separate Mordred from his body, at the cost of also trapping my body in the same seal that contains Mordred's original body deep within the Avalon Temple. Thankfully that seal is still intact and cannot be broken until the remaining seals are undone, but I doubt that will not stop him from trying to get his body back."

"What happened after that? You know if the spirit even for a Seraph stays out of their body for too long, they'll disappear right?" Edna asked.

"Wait, is that true? The spirits of Seraphim can disappear for good after a period of time outside their original bodies?" Mikleo wanted to verify this.

"Yes. I knew that I had to act quickly so I had Lailah help me seal my spirit form away in the stone tablet you saw at Avalon Temple. We created it with a special function in mind, the seal on that tablet would only break when a new Shepherd appeared, much to my surprise, a Shepherd did appear, along with another who had the potential to become one."

"Another with potential? You mean Arthur don't you?" Mikleo crossed his arms.

"That's right. When the seal broke, I knew I would need to find a vessel to maintain my existence in this world since my original body is still sealed away with Mordred's. So...well...you can figure out the rest."

"So that's why you made Arthur your vessel? That's still no excuse." Mikleo replied.

"I know, I know my actions were rude and selfish. I deeply apologise for putting Arthur through what he did. Under normal conditions, I would have gone with proper procedure, but given that I was in spiritual form doesn't give you a lot of time to think, my original idea was to use Sorey as my host, but his pact with Maotelus from when he became his vessel is still active. According to the oath that all Seraphim and Shepherds must abide to, any rank lower than a Seraph Lord like Maotelus, such as Arch Lords, Prime Lords, and such cannot overtake or usurp another's pact. And you can't have two active pacts going at the same time with the same Shepherd. Sub-Lord pacts are not the same since they make the pact with the Arch or Prime Lord themselves, not the Shepherd. So naturally, I am no position to overrule Maotelus's pact with you."

"Wait, I thought I just became his vessel, I didn't think I made a pact with him at the same time." Sorey looked surprised by this fact.

"Well, it's definitely still there and active, your pact with Lailah was made annulled during the fight with Heldalf, I'm sure you know exactly why and how that happened. I do not know if you will be able to renew it so long as that pact with Maotelus remains. So, because of that, I had to choose the one person who had no pacts with any Seraphim, thus Arthur became my vessel and host. I can assure you right here and now that I do not have any intentions of causing harm to him or possessing his body against his will. So you can stop glaring at me now, Mikleo." Merlin nodded and then glared at Mikleo who has not stopped glaring daggers.

"Wait, so if I wasn't there when I was...You would have vanished." Arthur blinked.

"Most likely, as I would not have found a suitable host in time before my life on the surface would cease and I would essentially moved on from this world, or get reincarnated anyway, depends which came first. Even so, I'm sorry for forcing this on you."

"...Wow, now I feel like a total jerk." Arthur sighed.

"Huh? Why would you say that?" Merlin looked shocked, why would Arthur feel guilty? He was the one who forced this situation on Arthur.

"Well, I was angry at you at first, I thought you did it for no good reason or you were just trying to run and hide from something and using me, but knowing that you would have died if you hadn't taken the actions you did, I would feel awful if I felt in-directly responsible for causing your death. It would have felt even worse if I had out-right rejected you."

"It doesn't justify that I essentially forced you into a pact, and you have every right to reject me now if you so wanted to, and I would not argue with that if it was your choice. However, if you choose to remain my host, I promise you as soon as we find a way to remove my body safely without breaking the seal around Mordred's body, I will return to it and annul the pact, it is not fair that you have to put yourself in danger just because I'm sharing your body."

"What are you talking about? Wouldn't I be in danger regardless? If Mr. Sorey's the one who has to fight this Mordred person, wouldn't Uncle Mikleo and the others go with him, and I would also follow them? So basically I would have been in danger even if you had been able to make a pact with Mr. Sorey instead." Arthur explained.

"...Well, you're full of surprises aren't you?" Merlin looked very impressed, he hadn't thought of it like that.

"We all know where he got that rational thinking from~" Lailah giggled glancing at Mikleo.

"...What?" Mikleo looked puzzled at Lailah's playful glance.

"Maotelus did say we needed Merlin's help to deal with this Lord of Calamity soo..." Sorey reminded.

Mikleo sighed. "Fine, if Arthur's okay with it, I'll accept this. Although that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"So what about you, kid? You're gonna stay as Merlin's vessel until he can get his original one back?" Zaveid turned to Arthur.

"...Well I can't really say no, can I? I'm still mad at what he did, but I understand now why he had to do it. Just so we're clear though, taking possession of my body without permission is a no go, but say if I faint or get knocked out, then I'll accept that under those conditions, promise?" Arthur warned, but didn't hesitate to answer.

"That was never my intention to begin with, however, if you feel you need to hear these words. Yes, I promise, you have my word as my oath."

"Okay, so it's agreed! From here on out, we're partners!" Arthur completely content with the answer and punched the air.

"You have _definitely_ recovered from your fever." Merlin rolled his eyes.

"Well, why don't we go out and enjoy the celebration? They say that the First Prince of Hyland is going to make a speech to commerate the event." Lailah decided to change the topic by mentioning the event that was taking place outside.

"Oh goodie, that sounds so much fun, not." Edna narrowed her eyes with a bored expression.

"Celebration?" Merlin repeated.

"Oh right, you don't know about it." Arthur smiled and turned to face Merlin. "It's an event to celebrate the 1000 year anniversary of 'The Battle of Glavein Basin', or known to some better as the 'Dragon War'." Arthur started.

"Hmmm, I might have to look into this later, there's a lot of things that I've missed out on it seems." Merlin muttered to himself.

"Huh?"

"Forget about, it's nothing that important. Still, I would be interested to hear what the royal family of this Hyland Kingdom has to say." Merlin shook his head.

"Oh yeah, you've never been to Ladylake before have you?" Arthur remembered.

"Well, I'm pretty sure the only thing that existed in Lakehaven heights was Avalon Temple. So I admit, I was surprised that an actual Kingdom was built here in the time I was sealed away." Merlin replied honestly.

"Wow, you have been in that seal for a while, huh?" Zaveid grinned.

"Approximately six thousand years give or take." Merlin answered.

"...Whoa. I'd be going stir crazy if I was stuck in a temple for that long." The wind seraph whistled.

"It wasn't that bad. The stars gave me company during that whole time, and I was allowed to wander the domain of my temple, so long as I didn't take a step outside the temple or the domain itself."

"The stars?" Mikleo didn't know what to make of that statement, although he did remember the giant skylight directly below the stone tablet, perhaps it served some hidden purpose?

"Then I'll show you around then! C'mon, it'll be fun!" Arthur clicked an idea and pulled Merlin to his feet. "We'll see you guys at the speech ceremony!" Arthur waved the others as he dragged Merlin with him.

"Wait, Arthur!" Mikleo tried to say something but Arthur had left the inn pretty fast.

"Awww, Arthur's made a new Seraph friend, my teacher to be in fact~" Lailah sweetly smiled.

"You sure we should be leaving those two by themselves for now? I know Ladylake is a pretty safe place these days but these celebration festivals do bring all kinds of weirdos." Zaveid asked.

"He probably wanted to get away from Mother Henleo for a bit." Edna smirked.

"Would you stop calling me that?" Mikleo scowled.

"They'll be fine, Mikleo. I don't think they would just leave without telling anyone, Arthur's not the kind of person." Sorey tried to reassure his best friend.

Mikleo crossed his arms and smirked. "Oh...and what about the time you were leaving Elysia without telling Gramps, anyone from the village or even me?"

"Uhhhh...That was different?" Sorey defended with a weak comeback.

"Don't worry, Mikleo. Master Merlin is right by his side, he would never let anything bad happen to him." Lailah also reassured.

"What is your history with him anyway? And please don't tell me that's also bound by the oath?" Mikleo turned to the Fire Seraph or rather known as the 'Lady of the Lake' to the people of Ladylake.

"Oh, Master Merlin was my teacher from when I was very little. He was always very supportive and nice to me, he taught me everything I knew today." Lailah answered.

"I can tell from the way Merlin greeted you. You two really get along well." Sorey nodded.

"Yes, it warms my heart to see Master Merlin freed after so long."

"Wait, does that mean you also came from the Asgard Era?" Mikleo noted.

"...Oh look! So many people has come to see the celebration tonight!" Lailah quickly snapped her head to the window and looked outside to the bustling streets.

"..."

"Wow, it looks amazing! C'mon let's go." Sorey excitedly with the cheerfulness of a little kid, literally pulling Mikleo with him.

"He's such a big kid." Edna sighed.

"Still, nice to see Sorey hasn't changed at all, huh?" Zaveid smirked.

"Oh well, we better go follow them, make sure Sorey isn't causing any problems with his stupidity." Edna rolled her eyes.

As the other Seraphim followed, Lailah paused for moment before shaking her head. "No I must have imagined it, I'm certain Master Merlin would have told me if that's the case." With that she followed after her fellow Seraphs.

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0~

And there we have chapter 3! I hope you guys enjoy the fan fic so far. :3

Just want to take this moment to thank everyone who has reviewed, followed or favorited this story. It's so nice to see support for this, given I was a little nervous on how it would be received. :3

I'm also going to be revising the past two chapters as some reviewers had noted that I made a few story canon mistakes and will amend them. Hopefully future chapters won't have these mistakes but let me know if they crop up again. :3 I'm very sorry for the mistakes.

I know it's had a slow start but in Chapter 4, things about to light up and life-changing decisions will be made and Merlin seems to have caught on to something about no one else had. What could this be? And what is this secret mission that Mordred sent the Hellion, Lunnare, be about that would ignite the old flames of malevolence in Glenwood?

Please look forward to the next instalment: Chapter 4: Saving Prince Leontius

Until next chapter, happy reading everyone, Moogle Empress out!

Moogle: Kupo!


	5. Chapter 4: Saving Prince Leontius

Hello everyone, before we start on Chapter 4. I'd like to go over what I call the review corner in order to respond to guest reviews since there's no reply option to them. But I'll respond to signed reviews here too if future ones show up.

Guest: Thank you for your review and your thoughts. I can understand where you come from and I appreciate the honesty. =)

I've made changes to the previous chapters before to correct the story canon mistakes that I've made and tweaked Half-Seraphim down to one element instead of multiple. =D

I do see your point about why Arthur might not be able to become a vessel in the first place because of the Seraph half, and since their bodies act the same way as human bodies do, that would also be a factor. So you are right in that sense.

However, the Shepherd pact makes this particular situation very possible, for example if the one Half-Seraph is a lord (of any ranking, sub, prime, arch, etc) and the other is the Shepherd, the pact would allow the one acting as the sub/prime/arch lord to work the same way as a Seraph would and allows the Shepherd to become their vessel.

So in this case, I stand by I had written since the Shepherd's pact makes it possible for Arthur to become Merlin's vessel.

If they were just normal Half-Seraph, such as Merlin wasn't an Arch Lord to begin with or Arthur had rejected Merlin and therefore annual the pact, then yes, you would be right, but as I written above, they aren't normal. Merlin did shamefully admit he had essentially forced the pact on him to stop his spirit from disappearing since his original body is sealed away along with Mordred's. And Arthur chose to keep the pact instead of out-right rejecting Merlin as soon as he regained conscious. I hope that helps clear up the confusion. =D

Other than that, looking back on previous chapters I do agree with what you said and tweaked the things you thought needed to be altered slightly. I hope now it is a better story because of it. I apologise again, I keep forgetting that there's a delicate line between a balanced character and a overpowered one, hopefully that now has been corrected and balance has once again been achieved. :3

I will do my best for future chapters to keep the current and future OCs in balance. :3

Okay, with that out of the way and dusted, let's a go! o/

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Saving Prince Leontius**

* * *

The streets of Ladylake were bustling with life and commotion as the night-time events of the '1000 Anniversary of the Dragon War' or otherwise known as the 'The Battle of Glavein Basin' were underway. Balloons and coloured flags decorated the streets with vendors selling festive treats and souvenirs at their stalls.

In the middle of all this was Arthur and Merlin, the young sandy blonde youth had been busy showing Merlin all the famous parts of the city. Merlin was actually quite inquisitive and took in all these new sights and the lore behind with them great interest and curiosity.

"I appreciate you showing me around the city. Your knowledge of this place has given me an great insight as to what this Hyland Kingdom is about."

"No sweat. Besides to be honest, I kinda wanted to get out of the room." Arthur smiled. "Hey, Merlin, you said you were Half-Seraph, but do you have an dominant element that you're skilled at." Arthur asked.

"Yes, like all Seraphim there is always one primary element that is yours alone. In my case, my base element is the Light. So I guess I would be considered a Light Seraph if I had been born a full-blooded Seraph." Merlin answered.

"Light? Uhhh...can you define that for newbies like me?" Arthur pressed for a definition.

"I mean the holy kind of light."

"Ah, I see. So I guess that would have made me a Wind Seraph if I was born as a Seraph fully...I'm still unable to control these wind artes properly though."

"If it's any constellation, all Half-Seraphim have trouble controlling their powers fully until they reach adulthood, since you're...well...a child still, your body is still growing and with that, your Seraphic ability to control Wind Artes. Give it time, you'll master it."

"I guess..." Arthur sighed. "So...you specialize in light element seraphic artes? I didn't know there was a element like that."

"I see, so you aren't familiar with the other four elements yet. You see, other than your fire, water, earth and wind Seraphim, there are also four more elements that Seraphim can fall into. These four are Light, Dark, Thunder and Plant."

"No way, so there's another four elements? How come we never seen any of those kinds of Seraphim in Glenwood though?"

"Hmmm, how do I explain this?" Merlin placed a hand on his chin as he pondered how to word it. It took at least ten seconds before he came to an answer. "I suppose the best way to explain it is why we have two diverse continents. As I'm sure you are aware, Fayrule has their own kind of humans and Seraphs that have adapted to the northern climate of Fayrule while a place like Glenwood would take a long time for them to get used after being in one place for so long, especially in a Seraph's case."

"Oh, so they mostly live on the northern continent. Fayrule's a mysterious place, I don't think even my family ever went beyond Glenwood."

"That wouldn't surprise me. Fayrule and Glenwood has an interesting past history together. Not to mention, they also have different cultures and lifestyles, much different from Glenwood anyway, because of this, the two continents had always been met with distrust and conflict. I am not sure if that's the same now in these times."

"I thought you were sealed away for all that time though. How do you know all this if you couldn't leave your domain? Let alone your temple."

"That's my personal secret." Merlin simply answered giving him a glare that told him to 'drop the subject'.

Arthur sighed. "Fine, be cryptic. I wish you could be a little more open with me, we're partners now, aren't we?"

"...I'm also bound to the oath too, you know. There's some things that I can't talk about." Merlin darted his eyes away.

Arthur didn't look so convinced if Merlin was telling the truth or not but left it at that. There was no point needling him for information if he couldn't or just didn't want talk about. What is it with these Shepherd Pacts and their oaths anyway?

"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask earlier. Does this...officially make me a Shepherd?" Arthur asked.

"...Kind of. I've only initiated the pact of bonding between you and I. As of right now you are the Shepherd in name only, you won't be able to armatize or officially purify Hellions until I get my Armatus back from the Temple and since you are acting as my vessel I will also have to live inside your body once the pact is officially verified."

"Huh? You mean the pact is only half-completed?" Arthur looked shocked by this.

"Yeeeaaah...I should have mentioned this to you before. My Armatus is back at the Avalon Temple, I asked Lailah to seal it away in a secret room, in case if any thieves somehow get pass my illusionary arte, find the temple by accident and loot it. In order for the pact of the Shepherd to work properly, we'll need that Armatus to verify it. I'm sorry."

Arthur gave an annoyed look, but other than that shrugged. "Fine, we'll do just that first thing tomorrow then. Would this officially make me the first Half-Seraph Shepherd then, or were there others like me?" Arthur wondered.

"Yes, in the past both humans and Half-Seraphs could become Shepherds in their own right, and Half-Seraphs could also become sub-lords, prime lords, arch lords, you get the idea."

"But if Half-Seraphs have bodies that act the same way as a human, wouldn't that-"

"No, if you become a sub, prime or arch lord, and you've accepted the pact of the Shepherd, the pact allows Half-Seraphs like myself to take shelter in the body of their Shepherd just like any other Seraph would. If it was any normal Half-Seraph who hasn't made the pact or isn't a lord of any ranking, then that's a different story entirely."

"Geez, so many loopholes and complex rules. Being a Lord of any ranking must be rough." Arthur felt his head spin from all this new information.

Merlin chuckled. "You have no idea."

Not paying attention to his surroundings, Arthur accidently bumped into another person, who was completely covered from head to toe with a ragged brown hooded robe.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" Arthur asked the person, reaching a hand out in concern.

The person sharply took a few steps backwards and responded, "I-It's fine. I was too distracted by this city...it's...completely different from what I imagined." The voice sounded odd, it was feminine without a doubt, but there was a hint of a rebellious tone laced within it.

"Oh, are you new to Ladylake? If you like I can show you where you need to go if you're looking for a certain location in the city." Arthur offered.

"You're so trusting." Merlin stated off-handed.

"I'm fine! It's not like I'm lost or anything! I just lost my bearings that's all!" The hooded person snapped.

"Ah! Um, I'm sorry?" Arthur was taken aback by the hostility.

"What's your problem? That's not how you talk to someone who is just trying to help you. You have a odd way of showing gratitude." Merlin frowned at this.

"Look, I don't need help nor do I want it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere I need to be." The hooded person finished curtly before moving around Arthur and walking a little too fast for Merlin's liking away from them, heading for the Sanctuary of the Sacred Blade.

"Well...that was odd. I wonder why that person acted that way? Did something happen?" Arthur wondered, confused by the whole encounter.

"Arthur, I believe Lailah told us that there was a speech ceremony being held sometime tonight?" Merlin turned to Arthur with a determined and serious expression.

"Huh? Well, that came out of complete nowhere. Yeah. It's a speech that's going to be made by the First Prince of Hyland to celebrate the 1000 year old peace between Hyland Kingdom and the Rolance Empire. Everyone really in Hyland really respects and admires him. I haven't met the guy myself, but from how everyone talked about him, he sounds like an amazing person. Everyone knows the Prince is a pacifist so I guess that's one of the reasons why they all like him so much." Arthur explained everything that he knew about the current Hyland Royal Family.

"Is this Prince the only heir to the throne?" Merlin pressed.

"Yeah, his father's still ruling as the King right now, but he's the crowned prince."

"Why is he called the First Prince then if he's the only heir?"

"A long-standing tradition that the Hyland Royal Family carries through their family line according to Uncle Mikleo." Arthur answered.

"I see. So the only heir to the throne is making a public speech about a celebration of peace after a thousand years? I think we should follow whoever that was, the hooded stranger we saw might be planning to assassinate the prince tonight in order to spark distrust between Rolance Empire or the continent of Fayrule, maybe even both." Merlin clicked.

"Assassinate the Prince?!" Arthur accidently cried out which Merlin quickly muffled his voice by covering Arthur's mouth with his hand.

"Don't blurt it out to the public, idiot!" Merlin hissed. He then sighed and released his hold on Arthur, thankfully it looked like no one took note of his outburst. "Look, did you notice just how the cloak covered that person's entire body? Not to mention was acting odd around us. " Merlin whispered.

Arthur simply nodded in response. "I just thought the guy was just shy. Also I think that person was actually a girl."

"Look, it doesn't matter if that was a boy or girl, that's not important. I think he or she is planning to kill the Prince of Hyland in an attempt to generate malevolence back in Glenwood, maybe even try to cause a new war." Merlin told him.

"If the Prince is killed, the people would be an uproar demanding justice." Arthur gasped.

"Yeah, they won't care what happens so long as they have someone to blame for the murder. Especially if this Prince is so highly treasured by the people of Hyland as you say he is."

"We have to warn Mr. Sorey and the others about this!" Arthur was about to turn before Merlin stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder.

"We may not have time. Tonight is too much of a perfect opportunity for the Assassin to pass up. If we delay a single moment, we could be sending the Prince to an early grave."

"You're saying **we** have to stop this? We don't have any weapons, I left mine back at the Inn and you just said your Armatus is back at Avalon Temple."

"I know, I'm aware of this. However, you and I have something that humans lack remember?" Merlin replied but tried to remind Arthur of a weapon they did still possess.

"Our Seraphic Artes! Wait, won't that reveal us as Half-Seraphim to them?"

"Not if we're clever about it. Besides, that shouldn't matter, someone's life is at serious risk here, we don't have time to second guess ourselves."

"...You're right," Arthur nodded, "the speech is being held at the Great Sanctuary of the Sacred Blade. It'll no doubt be overcrowded by the time we get there."

"So we'll have to sneak in. Being Half-Seraphs, we lack the ability to be invisible as our bodies are human-like so we can't just slip past the guards like Seraphs could."

"We could try the back entrance of the Sanctuary." Arthur suggested.

"There's a back entrance?" Merlin questioned, which Arthur proceeded to guide him too, as he expertly navigated the alleyways of the Aquapolis. "I see you know this city like the back of your hand."

"Well, it's where I spent a majority of my childhood, since Aunt Lailah lived here. So naturally got used to my surroundings in this place really fast." Arthur admitted proudly.

When they got there though, they were greeted with a bad sight. The two Hyland Soldiers guarding the back entrance had been knocked out cold.

Merlin checked to verify if the soldiers were just knocked out or worse dead.

"Merlin, are they...?"

"Don't worry, they're both alive. Looks like our mysterious hooded stranger is a swift one. Odd though, why did he or she keep them alive?"

"Maybe she doesn't take lives unless necessary?" Arthur suggested.

"You really think that person is a girl, don't you?" Merlin raised an eyebrow.

"It might sounded boyish to you, but my hearing hasn't failed me yet, it sounded feminine to me."

"Guess we'll find out for sure soon enough, let's get inside." Merlin shrugged. With that, the two ran past the two sleeping guards and hurried inside the Sanctuary.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0~

Meanwhile, Sorey and the five Seraphim (after Sorey exhausted his child-like excitement over the whole celebration and literally explored everything the festival had to offer) were now waiting patiently outside the sanctuary for the expected speech to begin.

Edna looked bored with all the waiting, while the other four were busy discussing amongst themselves.

"Okay, now I'm worried about Arthur. He knows this city too well to get lost, something's gone wrong." Mikleo had grown apprehensive since they arrived here, since he had originally expected to see Arthur here too, but alas no sign of him or that mysterious snow-haired Arch Lord.

"Mik-boy, would you just relax? The kid's fourteen years old now, nearly fifteen in fact if you count next month coming. He'll be fine." Zaveid tried to convince the Water Seraph but it didn't seem to be working.

"Is he always like this when it comes to Arthur?" Sorey whispered to Lailah.

"Oh always~" Lailah chirped.

"I heard that." Mikleo glared. "What? So I'm not entitled to worry about him now?"

"No, but it's not like Arthur doesn't know how to take care of himself. Who do you think keeps him trained in combat when you're not around, Meebo?" Edna scoffed, keeping her Umbrella open.

"That's not the point and you kno-" Mikleo stopped mid-sentence when he noticed Sorey had frozen, looking shocked, before he could ask what was wrong, he too felt the sinister presence and it looked like the other three felt it as well.

"That's a Hellion!" Sorey confirmed.

"But the Lord of the Land, Uno, is still here. There's no way they would risk coming into an area lacking malevolence. Unless they have a death wish." Zaveid reminded.

"Even so, we must investigate this at once. I'm worried about just what the Hellion is trying to accomplish rather than why it's here." Lailah replied to the Wind Seraph.

"Right, it's heading for the Sanctuary, it must be after someone inside." Sorey directed his head towards to the building.

"There's no way they'll let us in through the front, they would never believe you." Edna scoffed.

"Then we'll just go through the back, you remember, right Sorey?" Mikleo reminded the young Shepherd.

"Oh yeah, the back entrance we used to get into the Sacred Blade ceremony." Sorey nodded. "Let's go then."

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0~

"I hope Uncle Mikleo and the others don't see us here, I would never hear the end of it from him." Arthur whispered.

"I'd be more concern about our potential assassi-" Merlin started before he heard some voices from the other side of the wall. Leaning against the wall as tightly as their backs would allow them too, Arthur peeked his head out slightly to see what was going on.

There were a Seraph and a human on the upper level of the sanctuary, of course there were a group of soldiers stationed at every pillar and two more guarding the main door of the sanctuary.

The human near the blessing altar must be the First Prince of Hyland, Prince Leontius. Currently dressed in a royal red tunic with golden linings. He also wore dark brown breeches and had a long red cape that covered his shoulders and some of his neck, the clip that kept the cape together rested on the right shoulder with what looked like a flower, one very similar to a certain Princess's hairclip from ages past.

His hair was light brown with one highlight of hair light blonde, it fell to just mid-way down his back but was put into a loose ponytail, save for the highlight that was left loose to fall on the young prince's shoulder. His eyes were golden brown, a strange mixture of brown with gold flecks.

He wasn't wearing much jewellery save for a golden armlet and some bead earrings that looked like they were made by a child rather than by an actual goldsmith.

The Seraphs with him was Uno, the Water Seraph who blessed the entire area of Lakehaven Heights where Ladylake was situated along with a few other parts of the region. He was known as the Lord of the Land, Arthur had met him a few times when he stayed with Aunt Lailah as a small child while Mikleo had been exploring ruins.

"I am so nervous. What if I mess up my speech mid-way? What if I fluff up my lines?" The Prince paced the floor, unsure what to do with all the nervous energy stored inside him.

"Your Highness, you have very much crinkled that piece of paper from reciting from it over twenty times, I think you will be okay." Uno reassured.

"The Prince can see Seraphim? That's amazing! Nice to see people other than me who can see and talk with them." Arthur smiled, it made him relieved to see others like him, it made him feel less of an outsider.

"But, this is the first public speech I have ever done. I feel like I'm going to be sick." Leontius countered.

"If you are going throw up, your Highness, please do it before your big speech, I don't think the people of Hyland want to see their future king puking on stage." The Lord of the Land teased.

"L-Lord Uno, please!" Leontius flushed in embarrassment. He then gently touched the bead earrings, a small habit he does when nervous, the earrings were a gift from a little girl that was the daughter of a jewellery maker. He was touched by the heartfelt gift and decided to wear them out of gratitude.

Merlin, however, was scanning the area for the hooded stranger, eventually he spotted their target, hiding behind the pillar, he had no idea that person managed to sneak behind guard standing not far from the pillar. This person was a little more stealthier than Merlin expected.

"Your Highness, it is almost time for the public speech to the people." One of the soldiers announced before giving the royal salute.

"Thank you, I would like to spend a few moments in private if you please." Leontius thanked.

"Your highness! Are you certain? Perhaps two of our men should stay to defend you?"

"Please do not be concern for my safety. I am standing in the bastion of where the Lord of the Land that protects our City and parts of our Kingdom from the evils of the malevolence. Please have faith in the Seraph that watches over us all." Leontius reassured.

"I-If you say so, your Highness. If you need aid or assistance, we will be outside waiting dutifully for your arrival." The solider was hesitant to leave their Prince unguarded, but if it was the Prince's request, they would respect it.

With a raised hand as a signal, the soldiers left through the front door and closed it behind them.

Leontius sighed deeply. "I can do this. I know I can." Leontius tried to steel himself for the speech that was to come.

"You will be fine, your Highness. Have more faith in yourself." Uno tried to encourage.

"Thank you, Lord Uno. Your words of encouragement are great comfort to me. Still, my body just can't stop shaking. Some future king I am turning out to be." He sighed.

Merlin nudged Arthur to let him know that now was the time to act. "Okay, ready? NOW!"

With that the duo jumped from the upper level and ran straight for the hooded person was just about to come out of hiding from the pillar. The hooded stranger was tackled to the group with a startled yelp.

Making both Uno and Prince Leontius jump out of complete shock at the sight.

"Get the hell off me! Let me go!" The hooded person screeched as they tried to kick the assailants off her.

"Not until you tell us what you were planning to do here! Sneaking into the Sanctuary where the Prince of Hyland is going make his public speech to the people of this Kingdom? Very suspicious if you ask me for a mere tourist." Merlin demanded, using all his strength to hold down the person's feet.

"I'm very sorry about this." Arthur attempted to apologise as he tried to keep the stranger's arms pinned.

"Um...I...What just happened?" The Prince was completely lost.

"Wait, aren't you that young boy who is usually with the Lady of the Lake?" Uno recalled.

"Heh heh, hi...Lord Uno." Arthur laughed nervously. "Please don't tell her about this."

During the whole struggle the hood had finally come undone, revealing the person's face.

Turns out Arthur's intuition had been correct the whole time. The hooded person was indeed female. Although she had a boyish appearance that could easily mistake her for being a boy. She was roughly around Arthur's age, maybe even one year older, had short haired auburn-haired that brushed halfway to her neck. Bright red eyes that burned with life She had a few traces of freckles decorating bridge of her nose and across her cheeks. She wore thin-frameless glasses and was currently giving them the most deadly death glare she could muster.

"Why are you doing this to me?! All I just wanted to do was to get an audience with the King of Hyland!"

"...What?" Merlin blinked in surprise.

"You heard me! What did you think I was going to do, idiot?! Threaten the Prince? What would I gain by doing that?"

"Merlin..." Arthur released the girl's arms and crossed his own arms over his chest.

"Ah...I'm...sorry. I misjudged you." Merlin now felt very stupid, he let go of the girl completely, allowing her to sit up.

"Excuse me...? Might I ask what exactly is going on here? I'm afraid I do not understand the problem.

"I'm very sorry, you Highness. I acted on my own assumptions, I assumed this person over here was planning to assassinate you, but..." Merlin admitted his shame.

"Really? That's what this was all about? Okay, so maybe I do look a little suspicious with the way I dress and everything, but I swear, that was far from what I intended to do." The girl admitted that her robe did give the impression she was hiding something.

"I'm sorry, Arthur. I acted so recklessly, this usually isn't like me." Merlin turned to apologise to Arthur, but instead got gently knocked on the head by him.

"Stop apologising already! Yes, you rushed ahead without thinking it all through, but you had good intentions behind it all, right? There's nothing wrong with that. Although, this does mean we kinda broke the law here, you know, breaking and entering." Arthur told him.

"...Gee, I never thought I'd see the day when I get lectured by someone younger than me." Merlin laughed softly. "Even so, I'm very sorry for my actions tonight, Arthur. Next time, I'll ask your opinion." Merlin added.

"Well, at least now we know for sure right? But isn't there someone else here who deserves your apology more than me?" Arthur pointed to the young girl.

Merlin sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, Miss...I wrongfully judged you on our first encounter alone."

The girl sighed. "Look, I'm not exactly innocent in this too. I did act rudely to both of you, so it wasn't like you didn't have a good reason to judge me. And...sorry that I lashed out at you two as well, I felt bad about it afterwards."

Arthur chuckled before asking, "So...what's this about wanting to speak with the King of Hyland? Couldn't you just ask for an audience outside the palace?"

" **I did** , but all the guards told me was "we don't waste our time with time-wasters or foreigners, go through official procedures like everyone else." I didn't have time for that political nonsense!" The girl defended hotly.

"Was it urgent for my Father to know?" Prince Leontius looked quite concerned with the girl's plight.

"This is why I'm here now. When I heard that the King's son was going to be giving an public speech tonight, I thought this would be the best chance I have to getting an audience quicker, by talking to the Prince himself."

"So that's why..." Merlin shook his head at his own foolishness.

"I see. It sounds important. Very well, I will try talking to my Father about this. Is this something you can tell us about or is it strictly for him?" Leontius asked.

"Um well...My leader told me-" before she could say anything else, a dense malicious feeling domain fell over the church quickly.

"W-what? My domain...it's been overpowered?" Uno looked horrified, looking around for the one who was causing this high level of malevolence.

"Ugh...this awful sensation, what is this?" Leontius felt even more sicker than he had earlier.

"Merlin, this is a Hellion's domain!" Arthur knew what it was right away.

"Yeah, and for it to overpower a Lord of the Land's domain, this one's strong."

The girl scanned the area as if to try and locate the source. "So, that's what they're called huh? And all this time I thought they were nothing more than monsters."

"Wait, you can see this domain? Do you have resonance?" Arthur looked shocked by this realization.

"Huh? What's resonance? And yeah, those guys that give off the dark aura around them and look like monsters? You call them Hellions, right?" The Girl looked confused, but pulled out what looked like duel pistols.

"Those weapons-! Where did you get those?!" Merlin instantly recognized them right away and demanded for answers.

"Hey, we haven't got time for this!" She barked at him.

"You shouldn't use those! They require benevolence bullets, if you use them just as they are-" Merlin warned her. "Wait, could it be that you-"

"Ben-what now?" She gave a bewildered look to Merlin. "Ugh, whatever, we got more important things to worry about here!" With a swift move, she removed the cloak that had kept her body hidden until now for better movement. She wore a black skin-tight turtle-necked vest with at the front, over her vest was short light grey jacket shirt. She wore matching pants with many belts around the waist, some where even left loose while others were strapped already. She also wore black traveller boots with just as many belts around the ankle.

Just then, Arthur's instincts kicked in, when he saw a glint of metal in the corner of his eye, he pushed the Prince out of the way in time to dodge what looked like a sharp dagger, scratching Arthur's arm and then making a clean crack into the marble floor from the impact.

"Oh no! Are you okay?" Leontius panicked and checked the boy who had just essentially saved his life. Arthur's arm was bleeding from the cut that was made, but it didn't look too deep to be serious.

"I'm okay. That was close though. Merlin was right after all, someone was definitely after your life, your Highness." Arthur ignored the wound and tried to spot the one who had thrown that dagger through all the darkness of the domain.

"Come out of hiding, you coward! We know you're here." Merlin called out.

That was when they all heard an insane cackle echoing through the entire sanctuary before the culprit jumped out of hiding.

"...A fox man Hellion?" Arthur looked puzzled.

"I don't care what it is, I'm taking it down. It's just like the ones I've seen back home." The girl scoffed.

"Hehhehehehe, well, tonight turned out to be more better than I expected. Not only do I get to kill the royal brat descended from **her** blood, I get three side dishes as well~"

"Who are you? Why do you want to kill the Prince of Hyland so badly? He hasn't done anything to you!" Arthur questioned the Hellion.

"Hahahahaha! Well aren't you amusing? I don't need a reason, I just kill for the joy of it. Also, my new Master wants his death so malevolence can spread across Glenwood once more."

"New Master...? I can't help but feel this has Mordred's name all over this scheme." Merlin's eyes narrowed.

"What? That's your _only_ reason? You're one sick bastard." The girl hissed.

"You're too kind." The Hellion snickered.

"How could you kill like that? Don't you feel any regret or remorse from it?" Arthur shook his head.

"Arthur...I think this one is too far gone, even if we had the power to purify right now, I doubt we could save this man." Merlin reasoned.

"Then I'll gladly carry out the death sentence." The girl armed her two pistols and aimed them at the Hellion.

"Whoa! I told you those things are dangerous to use on a whim! You don't even know what they are."

"All I know is that they give me the power to take down monsters like him. That's all I need to know." The girl retorted.

"Hmmm? What's that little toy you have? Think you can beat me with them?" The Hellion gave an evil smirk.

"I don't think. I know." She smirked back.

"Arthur, you need to get the Prince away from this place, you can't allow this Hellion to kill him." Uno called out, he was growing weaker by the minute with this domain overwhelming his own.

Arthur nodded and turned to the Prince. "We need to get you out of here. That's our main priority."

"We'll keep him busy, Arthur, you get him out." Merlin told him before firing a light seraphic arte at him, initiating the first move. Followed by the duel pistol wielding girl who fired a few shots with what looked bullets of glowing light at the Hellion who swiftly dodged her shots.

"Damn it, slippery scumbag."

However, the Hellion simply smiled at their pathetic attempt to thwart him, as he invoked more power that his Master, Mordred bestowed upon him.

"The...malevolence, it's increasing?" Merlin took a few steps back.

"Ugh, usually I'm pretty resilient in this stuff but even this is starting to make my stomach churn." The girl grimaced.

"I see...so you really do possess it..." Merlin was now confident of the girl's hidden potential, which would explain how she would be able to use those two pistols in the first place.

The Hellion easily used his new powers to blow both Merlin and the girl off their feet, crashing harshly into the stone walls behind them.

"Merlin!" Arthur panicked for snow-haired Arch Lord.

"Ow...damn it, if only the Shepherd Pact wasn't half-completed." Merlin cursed. "Arthur, get out of here with the Prince while you still can! We're no match for him right now."

Unfortunately, the Hellion acted before Arthur could even react and grabbed him into a chokehold.

"Well this was boring, I was expecting more of a fight from all of you."

"Shut up!" The duel-pistol wielding girl spat out, even though she was still too stunned from the impact to do anything.

"Ahhh, interesting, you're a Half-Seraph, I wonder how you taste? Of course, Lord Mordred might get angry if I did, oh well what he doesn't know can't hurt him~?" The Hellion tightened the hold on Arthur's neck, making it harder to breathe for him. He tried to cast a wind arte but the lack of oxygen made it impossible.

Leontius tried to look around for a weapon and found a decorative lance on one of the pillars and quickly took it off to arm himself. While he was not wearing armour right now, he couldn't stand by and let us this happen to these people trying to protect him, so using his skills with makeshift weapon he managed to knock the Hellion at a blind spot, causing him to drop Arthur to the floor, coughing and gasping for air after his lungs had been denied of it.

"Why you filthy little-!" The Hellion growled and was about to strike the royal with a deadly blow until he was pushed aside by a powerful Lion's howl attack. And the domain that was covered in malevolence was quickly dispelled, giving Uno much reprieve and his full power back.

Arthur and the others had no idea who their saviours were until one of them scooped up Arthur in an embrace.

"Arthur! Are you alright?"

"Uncle Mikleo?! Mr. Sorey? Everyone?" Arthur looked horrified, how was he going to explain this?!

"We'll talk later, young man." Mikleo simply told him before getting up and standing next to Sorey.

"Lunnare?! How are you still alive?" Sorey was shocked by the fox man Hellion's return.

"Geez, how many times do we have to kill you til you **stay** dead, huh?" Zaveid raised his arms up with frustration.

"Somebody's got a grudge, that's for certain." Edna twirled her umbrella.

Lunnare gritted his teeth with annoyance. "Shepherd brat, how I've waited for this moment of reunion. I will tear you apa-"

 _"Lunnare, cease your actions. What do you hope to accomplish by trying to take on the Shepherd Sorey alone? You are aware you are no match for him, right? He does have the pact of Maotelus with him."_ A voice echoed in Lunnare's head.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?!" Lunnare snarled, to which everyone present looked at each other with confusion at why Lunnare was talking to himself.

 _"Do you really want Lord Mordred to know that not only you failed your first mission, but you also were going to eat someone of our own kin? I do not think he would like that news very much. He might even take back all that extra power he gave you. if this is how you abuse it."_ The male voice berating Lunnare warned him.

"N-no! Don't let Lord Mordred know about that! He would kill me!"

 _"Oh I know he would, if he knew about your little gluttony moment, he would do much worse than just kill you. Retreat for now, Lord Mordred's orders, we've already arranged a little something to make up for this failure. Turns out deceiving people after an era of peace is so much more easier than before."_ The male voice finished before cancelling the connection.

"Tch, you got off lucky this time. The next time we meet though...I will enjoy tearing you all limb by limb and watching you writhe in pain!" Lunnare vowed before vanishing into the portal of malevolence that opened up behind him before snapping closed.

"Owww...I don't know how, I'm glad you arrived when you did." Merlin walked over, along with their mysterious foreign fighter who placed the two pistols back in their holsters. Not before Zaveid managed to get a good look at them.

"Hey wait a minute, those things look almost like Siegfried! Where did you get two of them?" Zaveid asked curiously.

"None of your business." She crossed her arms defiantly.

Lailah had been checking up on Uno to make sure he was alright. Turns out he would be okay, although the malevolence was indeed quite nasty shock to the body after the land had been purified of it for a long time.

Just then the doors of the Sanctuary opened with a swarm of Hyland Soldiers marching in.

"What? What is all this?" The Prince looked shocked by the increased number of soldiers.

"Your Highness! Are you hurt?! Please forgive us, when we heard the commotion going on inside, we tried to break in, but the doors were sealed in from the inside. Rest assured, we have come to arrest the assassins and interrogate them for answers. Arrest those three, they were the ones we were tipped about." The solider apologised for their late arrival to aid their future ruler, then proceeded to order the other soldiers to apprehend Arthur, Merlin and the girl.

"Hey! Ow!" Arthur cringed at the rough-handling, especially since his arm was still hurting from the dagger.

"What? We didn't do anything! We're innocent!" Merlin shouted before having his arms tied behind him.

"What? There's got to be some mistake!" Sorey and the other four were horrified by this.

"Arthur would never do something like that!" Lailah was defended, but alas the solider didn't see, let alone hear her.

"What? These people did not attack me, let alone try to take my life! They were the ones who SAVED me! They must have been framed by someone! Please who gave you this tip?" Prince Leontius also looked enraged by this false accusation.

"For-Forgive me, your Highness, this order was given by one of the chancellors of Hyland Government."

"Acting without approval from my Father...? They are out of line." Leontius shook his head.

"Please, there is nothing I can do. You will have to take it up with the King or Chancellor Harken to settle this."

"I will. I understand you are just doing your duty." He then turned to Arthur, Merlin and the mysterious duel-wielding girl. "I'm so sorry. I will do everything I can to amend this mistake. I have no idea who gave them this false information, but I know for certain that I would not be alive now if you had not been here. Thank you."

"I'm not going to let this happen!" Mikleo was about to retaliate but Sorey stopped him. "Mikleo, think about this, if we try to fight them, that will just make them look even more guilty to their eyes."

"I hate it too, Meebo, but even we can't do anything to help without making this worse for them." Edna gripped the hilt of her umbrella harder, honestly, this was why she still hated humans.

"Ugh, hate feeling so helpless." Zaveid gritted his teeth.

"It'll be okay." Arthur spoke out to reassure his family. "It'll be hard to convince them the truth that it was a Hellion that tried to kill the Prince, but I'm sure it'll turn out okay."

"But..."

"I can't help but feel that this whole event was being set up the whole time. We'll find a way to prove your innocence to these guys, I'm...just sorry we can't do anything without making you guys look guilty, even with the power of the Shepherd, I can't help." Sorey felt completely helpless not being able to help Arthur, Merlin or the girl that was with them.

Arthur shook his head. "Please don't worry, Mr. Sorey. It'll probably be sorted out before you know it. Just...please look after Uncle Mikleo, Big Sis Edna, Aunt Lailah and Uncle Zaveid for me, please? Especially Uncle Mikleo, I'm worried he'll try something reckless." Arthur wasn't that naive, he knew that this could take a while to prove they were innocent, given that the true assassin was someone that normal people couldn't see. He was more worried about what his family might try to do to break them out which would in turn make them really look like criminals, despite their good intentions.

Sorey simply nodded to him to let him know he got the message.

The girl, managed to break out of hold of two of the soldiers trying to hold her, take out what looked like a parchment from the inside pocket of her jacket and quickly have it to the Prince before her hands were tied behind her like Arthur and Merlin's.

"Your Highness, if you can't somehow convince them of our innocence, at least make sure that parchment gets to your Father."

"Hold still you!" The soldier tightened his hold on her arms to make his point clear.

"OW! Hey, were you raised by wolves or something?!"

With that, the Soliders started to pull them (or in the girl's case, forcefully drag her) away from the building and towards the castle where they would be put into prison cells below the castle.

"The parchment! Make sure he looks at it!" She managed to say before tugged out of the Sanctuary entirely.

"...How could this happen?" Mikleo shook his head, dread filling him every moment.

"Mikleo, I promise, we'll get Arthur back. Merlin too." Sorey comforted his best friend, this must feel so horrible to the Water Seraph right now. Especially when Arthur was completely innocent of all this.

Prince Leontius looked down at the parchment that the foreigner who must have risked a lot to come here and gave him this one piece of important information meant for his Father's eyes. He would make sure that, it would. He didn't know what Chancellor Harken and his council was planning, but he knew this parchment must not fall into their hands.

He had noticed the man known as 'Sorey' as he heard Arthur called him was talking to four other Seraphim. It made him wonder if this was the same Shepherd Sorey from his Grandmother's old stories that her own grandmother told her when she herself was just a child.

"Excuse me? Are you the one known as Shepherd Sorey?"

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0~

Whew, finally chapter 4 is done and dusted!

That was one of my longest ones so far, I think. XD

I hope that you are all enjoying the fan fic so far. :3

So much has happened? Why were Arthur and Merlin accused of attempted murder? Who was this mysterious girl who seemed to determined to get a message to the King of Hyland no matter what? Why did her duel pistols look and work almost the same way as Siegfried? How was she able to make them work without the power of the Seraphim? And what is this benevolence that Merlin speaks of?

What will happen next? Be here for the next instalment Chapter 5: The Forgotten Waterways

Until next chapter, happy reading everyone, Moogle Empress out!

Moogle: Kupo!


	6. Chapter 5: Arthur's Choice

Hello everyone! :3

Holy cow, I finally did it. I got around and finally finished this chapter once and for all! x.x

I'm very sorry for the long haitus I took. I ended up getting distracted by real life, FFXIV, and writer's block. XD

To be honest, I had to rewrite this chapter multiple times since I struggled to find the right way to go about this chapter for a long while. The original chapter was going to be far different from the final result, but I feel this turned out for the best. Even the Chapter's name title has changed from what I wrote in Chapter 4 since it turned out different from what I originally intended. XD

Now that this chapter is done, the others should be able to come out more smoothly now. Here's hoping anyway since I've caught my second wind on this for now.

I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and I apologise if feels a bit rushed, I wanted to finally get this chapter done and stop putting it off since I had so much differculty trying to figure out the best way to move forward so we could progress with the story. :3

I hope that this chapter lives up the long wait that I've put you through. Again I deeply apologise for the long wait.

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~Review corner time~ :3

Guest: Thank you for reading and I'm very glad that my explaination helped out. :3 It was tricky trying to explain it with words when it seemed so simple when I say it in my mind. XD

Anyway, I hope you continue to enjoy the future chapters as they get released. :3

Quinn: Thank you for your review. :3 I won't say anything yet but there will be two groups by the end of this chapter. =)

blackstarkitty: Thank you for your review :3 I'll do my best to update as quick as my fingers, attention span and my Bard Moogle (aka Muse) will let me. :3

Yumikowantscake: Thank you for your review. And don't worry, this story is also about Sorey and all our lovely Seraphim. They'll just have their own things to worry about while trying to reunite with the other group. You'll get the idea by the end of this chapter. :3

Mewnia: Aw, thank you very much. I'm happy that you're enjoying all the characters and the story as well. =D

I'll try my best to avoid as many grammar mistakes as I've made in the past. I have noticed that I sometimes tend to skip words when I'm typing too fast. =3

Reader IM: Thank you for reviewing. I apologise for the long haitus, I actually had no intentions of ever abandoning the story, although I can understand why you thought that. I just accidently neglected it due to the fact that I struggled with how to go about Chapter 5 and I've more or less put it off since I couldn't think of anything at the time.

I'm deeply touched though that you've really enjoyed this fan fic so much. I honestly didn't expect the fan fic to be this well-received. o-o

But thank you again for your review, it actually did help me to push myself to finally get around to updating this story. =3

With that said, thank you to everyone so far who has reviewed, favorited and followed this fan fic. I'm so happy that people are enjoying it. ^-^

Okay then, onwards to chapter 5! Please enjoy! o/

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 **Chapter 5: Arthur's Choice**

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It had been five days since Arthur, Merlin and the mysterious girl, whom they met on the night of the 1000 year celebration of peace were all falsely accused of the attempted murder of the First Prince of Hyland, Leontius and have yet to be either deemed innocent or guilty.

The soliders had kept them in the prison cells just below the Rountabel Castle, interogated them for five days straight and all they could give was the same answers every time.

Thankfully though, there was one good thing that came out of having to spent five days in this depressing wet cell, they've slowly but surely managed to befriend the strange girl who carried those two pistols that looked almost indentical to Siegfried, a weapon that Uncle Zaveid to this day still carried around.

They found out that the girl's name was Gwen Mayland, whom traveled to Glenwood from the neighbouring large continent of Fayrule. That was all they could get from here though, since she still remained very withdrawn and secretive about certain parts about herself. They also found out that Gwen had figured out that not only Arthur was a Shepherd, but both of them were Half-Seraphim, so it would seem for Fayrulians, Half-Seraphs were not an uncommon sight. The girl was definately quite observant despite her blunt nature.

Although Arthur heard of the land of Fayrule from Uncle Mikleo, Fayrule had always been a very ellusive place as only a few have heard about. Fayrule and Kingdom of Hyland weren't friends, but they weren't enemies either. Rolance, however, did have a history with them. They had wanted to expand their lands so they tried to conquer parts of the north first.

However, Fayrule was very hard to reach on foot, the only route that could reach Fayrule by foot was through Elysia, all other access to Fayrule could only be entered by ocean, but the waters around Fayrule were treachrous so only traders ever dared to travel those waters.

"Sooo, how much longer do you think they'll keep us down here?" Arthur wondered.

"Until we crack." The girl leaned her head against the wall. "Not sure what else they want from us, there's nothing else for them to gain by interrogating us."

"Unless they know you're Fayrulian, while relations between Fayrule and Hyland had always been netural at most, the fact that you were there when the Prince was suppose to hold his public speech would give them food for thought." Merlin noted.

"Hmph, if they have any common sense, they know better than to start picking fights with more than one country. Especially if they had intended to use this as an excuse to attack Rolance." Gwen scoffed.

"But why? Hyland and Rolance have gained so much from their co-existance together, why risk going to war with them?" Arthur found the idea of Hyland and Rolance going to war with each other after an age of peace between them horrifying.

"Unforunately, time can rot away a lot of things, even history can be forgotten by the masses after an age-long peace. It could be that Hyland and Rolance forgotten what it was that brought them together in the first place, also, not everyone is as pure-hearted as you, sadly. You'd be surprised what a few corrupted people can do to undo a thousand year old peace within a matter of moments." Merlin noted.

"That's awful. I feel sorry for the people who gave up their lives for this peace to happen, only to have to destroyed like that." Arthur shook his head.

"That's humanity for you. Even Fayrule has it's share of fools like that." Gwen shrugged.

"I've been meaning to ask you, Miss Mayland. Where did you get those two Angelus Pacifiers from?" Merlin questioned out of the blue.

"Huh? Well that was random. I got these from my old man." Gwen managed to keep hold of her two guns when the Hyland guards foolishly thought they were just toys since they didn't work when they tested them so they assumed it was harmless.

"Angelus Pacifiers?" Arthur repeated in puzzlement.

"They're ancient prototype weapons from the Asgard Era, Siegfried, the one that the Seraph, Zaveid holds is also of the same set. Only three of them have ever been produced since the project was canceled when it was too dangerous to mass-produce them." Merlin explained.

"Why were they considered too dangerous? I found them really useful, especially against those monsters that you call Hellions. Wow, it feels so weird to call them that, we've always assumed they were Monsters."

"...Miss Mayland. Is it possible that before coming here that you have not seen a Seraph or even malevolence before coming to Glenwood?"

"I have always been able to see Seraphim, I even have a few friends in Sylphali Woods who are Seraphim. Wait, does this have to do with that thing called 'Resonance' or something?"

"Are you saying Fayrulians can see Seraphim without resonance?" Arthur blinked in surprise.

"Rather they were unaware of it. You see, Fayule is considered a pureland to Seraphim since ancient times, this is because unlike Glenwood, Fayrulians were more intuned with the land and have a different mindset towards Seraphim." Merlin answered.

"It's more likely to see more resonance-sensitive people in Fayrule than Glenwood since the land has very little malevolence."

"Wow, that's incredible! So the climate of Fayrule has allowed the Fayrulians to adapt their bodies to be more sensitive to resonance, therefore it would be more natural for Fayrulian people to see Seraphim and Hellions rather than those who can't." Arthur excitedly summarized.

"Is it really that unusual for people to see Seraphim in Glenwood?"

"Glenwood has spent quite some time under the influence of malevolence, although the land has very recently been purified of the taint that slowed this land's recovery for quite some time, it has caused people to be numb and resistant to resonance, therefore a majority of people in Glenwood lack the ability to see them." Merlin swiftly replied.

"I see...I never knew that. I guess we Fayrulians should consider ourselves lucky..." Gwen quietly said, Arthur did detect something in her voice though, was it sadness? "Anyway, back to what I was saying before, why did they cancel the project for these 'Angelus thingies' that you called them? I mean they're so useful!"

"Oh they're useful alright, but as you saw with the two guards that were testing those guns, it's useless in the hands of those who lack the right requirements to weild them."

"Requirements? So they need a special kind of ammo or something?" Arthur wondered out loud.

"Yes. They need a large amount of energy, Seraphic Artes if you will."

"But I don't use Seraphic Artes, I'm not a Seraph, not even a Half-Seraph." Gwen tilited her head in confusion and crossed her arms over her chest.

"There is another source that can be used to empower the Angelus Pacifiers, although much rarer to find in humans and Seraphim alike. I beleive now would be a good time to explain this to you before you abuse it too much."

"Say what?!" Gwen huffed.

"I'm serious. I'm both releived and surprised that you're still alive since you've been recklessly using those things." Merlin gave her a serious look. "Okay, let's start off by explaining with basics. You know when you are sick and it leaves you weak and defenseless? In order to fight back against what illness is ailing you, your body will create something called anti-bodies."

"...I think I remembered Aunt Lailah talking about this once when I had this really bad case of flu, that was enough to make you want to sleep through it all." Arthur recalled a memory of his childhood.

Gwen simply nodded to the question. "I'm listening."

"Well, let's now put that same concept towards malevolence, as you know malevolence is a source of pure negative energy that can strongly affect, influence and feed upon negative emotions of all kinds, rage, hate, fear, jealousy and even love in its twisted form can be used for malevolence's purpose to transform people into Hellions or in a Seraph's worst case scenario, a dragon."

"Wow, so it can affect Seraphim too? That's a terrifying thought." Gwen shivered. "So Hellions are basically humans and Seraphs who have...turned into monsters?"

"Pretty much, Half-Seraphs are also vunerable to its influence just like everyone else. Same goes for animals, plants, the dead, you name it, Hellions can take form from anything." Merlin nodded. "Now think, what would happen if there was someone who has developed an unusual immunity to malevolence? In other words, cannot be influenced or tainted by malvolence alone, not only that, this immunity allows them to transform those 'anti-bodies' of theirs and channel it into a specialized weapon?"

"How could people develop an immunity to malevolence, wouldn't they need to have been affected by it first before the body can adapt to create the anti-body?"

"That's why I said it's extremely rare, you don't need to be afflicted with malevolence to develop it. It's more of a genetic mutation that has a one in a million chance of appearing in people. We gave it the name Benevolence.

"...Benevolence...It sounds like a really helpful immunity to be born with. But a person could still do bad things even if they aren't influenced by the malevolence, right?" Arthur guessed.

"This is true. However, that's not quite the point I'm trying to explain here. Benevolence can also be used as a weapon against the Hellions as I just told you, through a weapon designed for especially for Hellion purification."

"Wait, so all this time...I..." Gwen looked at her pistols that were still with her. Gwen rarely ever used bullets, the only time she used actual bullets was...well...when she found herself too tired to fire more of her 'magic bullets'.

"You've finally clicked, haven't you? That said, Seraphs could channel themselves through it and act as the cataylst in the same way Benevolence can be used, it was a dangerous gamble, it had costed a few Seraphs their lives who tested this method. While the weapons were indeed very effective, they were too dangerous in the hands of people who lacked the knowledge to use them properly, and there were too few people who generated Benevolence on the same level as you, Miss Mayland, to mass produce them, so they stopped the project."

"So Siegfried and the two guns Gwen has now are the only three protoypes in existance. Now I wished I paid attention to Uncle Zaveid's story more to find out where exactly he found Siegfried." Arthur was stunned, to think the weapon that Uncle Zaveid picked up on a whim turned out to be literally one of the only three specialized purification weapons that served the same purpose as the Shepherd, but without the pact, the complications and the oath that came with it.

"Anyway, by channeling raw Benevolence, which is what you had subconsciously been doing until now, is just as equally dangerous, Miss Mayland. While you do generate an incredible amount of Benevolence at once, you can easily burn all that faster than you can regenerate that lost benevolence if you're not careful. It's not that much different from using your own lifeblood, you could have killed yourself from overexerting your body's limit. Especally if you've been using both of them at the same time. Another thing, doing this makes yourself more vunerable to the malevolence the more Benevolence you use up all at once."

"...No way...I didn't even know. So that's why I felt really tired sometimes after using both guns probably around thirty times. I didn't realize that I was literally pouring my life energy into this." Gwen looked horrified, to think that she was so close to accidently killing herself, even though she was using that power for the greater good.

"You were very lucky, if you want to continue using the method you've been using, that's fine." Merlin nodded. "However, there is a much safer and resouceful way of doing this, when Benevolence is condensed into bullet form via seraphic artes, you can do just as much damage with them but with less the consumption to your body. One catch though, you need to have a Light Seraph to do the seraphic forging for you though."

"Merlin, you said that your main element was light, so that technically makes you a Light Seraph. You can help her!" Arthur suggested.

"True, it's within my power but...have you forgotten, Arthur? I'm bonded to you by the power of the Shepherd's pact. I'm not allowed to do anything like that unless you give her your blessing as a Shepherd, and to get your blessing...well...she would need to become your Squire." Merlin sighed.

"We can't ask that of her! She has her own problems to worry about." Arthur shook his head to Merlin.

"I never said that. You're not an offical Shepherd until I get my Armatus back anyway. Besides the bullets themselves are not mandatory, it just makes things easier for the one who uses the Angelus Pacifiers, or in our case, Miss Mayland here. Just...don't go overboard with using your Benevolence anymore, okay? As long as you do that, you'll be fine."

"Yeah, noted. I'll be no help to anyone if I'm dead. All this time though, I never relaized that it was thanks to this rare immunity that I could use those two guns in the first place." Gwen sighed and nodded.

"You're definately quite lucky, if a Shepherd was born with that, they would be literally unstoppable."

"Oh...that's right. A Shepherd can fall to malevolence too, can't they?" Arthur remembered.

"Yes, that's why Arch and Prime lords like myself and Lailah have to choose our Shepherds carefully. If one falls to the corruption of malevolence, a Lord of Calamity is born and any Seraph bound to the Shepherd could also be affected, or worse transform into Dragons ourselves."

"Oh, no pressure then." Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Arthur, I wouldn't have picked you if I didn't think you were worthy of being a Shepherd." Merlin reassured.

"Really?" Arthur looked hopeful.

"Of course. You really need to have more faith in yourself." Merlin nodded.

They heard the metal door to the prison cells creek with such a high-pitch squeal that it almost made their ears hurt.

They thought it was the guards again going to drag them off for yet another 'interrogation' that will once again end up fruitless.

"Get through your heads! You've got the wrong people!" Gwen yelled as she ran to the bars and gripped them tightly.

Imagine their surprise when the person turned out to be...

"Your Highness?!" Arthur was shocked to see Prince Leontius was indeed standing before them, with two guards also following closely behind.

"Are you alright? I'm so sorry that it took so long." The first thing the Prince did was apologise to them before turning to one of the guards. "Release them."

"Yes, your highness." The solider obyed and took out a key to unlock the cell door and opened it wide enough for the three confused prisoners to walk out.

"May you please wait outside? We will be out shortly."

"But your Highness, after what happened at the Sanctuary-!" One of the guards spoke out.

"It'll be fine. These people would never harm me, did my Father, the King of Hyland, also not approve of them being innocent in the end?" Leontius reasoned.

"If that is your wish, your Highness." Both of the guards were hesitant but the Prince would not lie to them, so they obeyed his wishes and left them alone, just waiting outside the entranceway to the dungeons.

"You're very popular I see." Gwen smirked.

"Please don't think too harshly on them. My Father had become very protective of me since the attack, so I've been put on constant watch now." The Prince smiled softly.

"Are they letting us go?" Arthur asked.

"Well...There's good and bad news. Good news is that I managed to finally convince my Father of your innocence. Bad news is Chancellor Harken has put the entire city on lockdown, so no one can enter or leave the city and my Father gave him approval for this. I think he still suspects you, but without proof, he can't arrest you again."

"So bascially we're still prisoners, lovely." Gwen crossed her arms in annoyance.

"I know. I cannot apologise enough. This is the best I can do for you right now."

"Your Highness, you have done enough for us. We're deeply grateful that you fought for our defense, I'm certain this Chancellor didn't give you an easy time." Merlin bowed respectfully.

Leontius shook his head. "It's the truth, you saved my life. How could I not do anything to repay that? Still...I wonder who that person who tried to frame you was? Could they have a connection to the Hellion that tried to kill me?"

"The Hellion revealed that he and whoever he works for, who I have a good idea who exactly that could be, planned to use your death to ignite another war, which would have generated a lot of malvolence, making the whole purification of Glenwood completely pointless." Merlin reminded.

"By lockdown, do you mean everyone who was here during the celebration is being held up here?"

"Yes, they're currently still under-going checks with everyone. It could take weeks before they'll remove it."

"We cannot wait that long. Even as we stand here, Mordred is probably working towards finding his other soul fragments. We'll have to sneak out ourselves if we can't get out by legitmately."

"What?!" Arthur jumped at the suggestion.

"I'm with the Half-Seraph on this, I need to get out of this city. I've done what I came here to do. Is there any way out of the city without going through the main gates?" Gwen agreed with Merlin.

"Well, you could go through the Vivia Aqueduct, but I'm sure they have placed guards there in order to stop anyone from using it to smuggle people out." Leontius suggested.

"I know some Grey Artes, I can use to put the guards to sleep for a little while, that should give us more than enough time to get out of the city before they even relaize we are gone."

"Grey Artes?"

"They're basically Seraphic Artes that don't fall into any of the elemental branches of Seraphic Artes. So a Seraph or Half-Seraph of any Element can learn them if you have the knowledge."

"Fascinating! I didn't know such Artes existed. I can see what the Lady of the Lake meant now by you being famous for your knowledge." Leontius sounded impressed.

"You've met my Aunt?" Arthur blinked.

"Yes, shortly after the whole incident at the Sanctuary, I was able to gain an audiance with the Shepherd Sorey and his four Seraphim. I have heard the legend of Shepherd Sorey from my Grandmother as a child. You see, my Father and I are descendents of Lady Alisha Diphda, who spent her whole life trying to preserve the peace that was hard fought and won. She even fought alongside the Shepherd for a little while"

"I see. So that's what the Hellion meant by 'her blood'." Merlin recalled.

"How are they anyway?"

"They are fine and well, but they have been very worried about you, especially Lord Mikleo. I'm sure they'll be overjoyed to see you free, now that my Father has cleared your name."

"I'm never going to hear the end of it from him." Arthur whined.

"Anyway, let us leave this place. I think you've spent more than enough time in this awful place." Leontius motioned for them to leave the dungeons.

"Agreed, I'll be happy to never step foot in this place again for the remainder of my life." With Merlin and Arthur walking towards the exit, Gwen turned to Leontius.

"So you've delivered the parchment?"

"Don't worry, I delivered straight to Father's hands like you asked. I must ask though, what was contained in that parchement that was so important that my Father had to see it?" Leontius questioned.

"Thanks for doing that, but to answer your question...I don't know myself, I never asked. I kinda wish I did now when I had the chance. Damn it, I'm slacking at my job."

"Don't worry, I'll read the letter myself when Father's not looking at it. Come, let us follow Sir Arthur and Lord Merlin out of this place." Leontius nodded and the remaining two followed Arthur and Merlin out.

* * *

Once finally out of Rountabel Palace, Gwen stretched her arms widely. "Finally, room to stretch~!"

"This is as far as I can go, I'm afraid my Father and the Hyland Government are still too cautious about letting me out of the castle for the time being. If you must know where your family is, Arthur, they are waiting at the Inn for you. I told them to expect you." Leontius smiled.

"Okay, thank you for everything that you've done for us. We'd probably be still in there if you haven't fought for our defense." Arthur thanked.

"I should be thanking you for showing up when you did, you may not relaize it, but you managed to prevent what would have started another war in the name of vengence. On behalf of all of Hyland, thank you, Sir Arthur." Leontius shook his head.

"Think nothing of it. Also, Arthur is just fine. The 'sir' part makes me feel a little uneasy."

"I see. Very well, Arthur. I'd also appreciate if you would call me just Leontius, as I feel the same way about being always called by my title first and my birth name last. It would be nice to not have the burden of my title hanging over me all the time."

"Oh...Well if that's how you feel. Then I'll do that then, Leontius. I guess it would get pretty annoying being called your 'Highness' all the time, huh."

"You have no idea." Leontius laughed softly. "I know you said that you would try leaving Ladylake tonight, but if you ever come back to visit, please drop by to see me here in the Noble District. You'll always be welcomed here at Rountabel Palace."

"Yeah, we'll see each other again, Leontius! Hopefully I'll have a ton of stories to tell you about. Until then, stay safe, okay?" Arthur smiled and waved.

"I look forward to it. You stay safe out there as well. Until we see each other again." Leontius waved back before turning back to the two guards that have been stuck to him like glue since leaving the dungeons, once they opened the Palace doors and allowed their Prince inside, they followed suit, closing the doors behind them.

Once it was just the three of them again, Merlin turned to face his fledging soon-to-be offical Shepherd.

"Well, what's our next course of action? We could always go back to the Inn and figure out how we're going to sneak out of the city. If it was just the three of us, using my Grey Artes to cast a sleep spell to sneak pass the guards watching the underground aquaducts, this would be easy to escape but..."

"Actually, I feel really awful for suggesting this...but I think we should do what you said back in the dungeons and just go by oursleves."

Merlin blinked a few seconds with a shocked look. "Arthur, you are the last person I'd expect to hear that from. Are you saying we should leave Shepherd Sorey and your family here in Ladylake?"

"I don't want them to get hurt because of me. I'm nothing like Mr. Sorey, I can't protect them like he can. What kind of Shepherd can't protect the people they love?"

"Arthur..."

"Besides, I don't want to be on the sidelines anymore, not when I can fight too. To be honest, I'm terrfied of being a Shepherd, what if I screw up and cause more harm then good? What if the choices I make as the Shepherd are the wrong ones? What if I become corrupted by the malevolence? It's strange, I used to idolize the idea of being a Shepherd...but now...I don't know how to feel."

"Arthur, have you forgotten someone?"

"Huh?"

"I know that the path of being a Shepherd is not an easy one, and your fears are justified. I know exactly how you must feel. You aren't alone though, I'm with you rememeber?" Merlin started.

"As your 'Arch Lord', my duty doesn't end with just bestowing you my power to armatize and lend my strength to yours. I'm also your mentor and friend, I have a responsbility to guide and protect you. Not just from malevolence, Hellions or even Mordred himself, but also from yourself as well. You really lack confidence in yourself, you know. Like I said back in the dungeons, I wouldn't have chosen you as my Shepherd, if I didn't think you were worthy of that title, even if my life depended on it."

"You have that much faith in me?" Arthur asked

"Of course, weren't you the one who said we were partners? You're much stronger than you think you are, Arthur. So I'll share your burden with you, okay? What kind of Lord would I be if I slacked off at my own job? I've got a reputation to keep, you know." Merlin lightly joked at the end, but Arthur heard his message loud and clear.

Arthur softly smiled. "Merlin, thank you."

"Yo, Arthur. Can I ask something of you?" Gwen turned to the blonde teen.

"Huh? Of course. What is it?" Arthur looked puzzled but he would hear out her question.

"You're going to become a Shepherd once your pact with this guy is offical and all that jazz right?"

"Well, yeah, that's the plan." Arthur nodded. "If what Merlin says is true then we need to stop this Lord of Calamity while he's not at full strength."

"So long as we stop him from getting at least one of his soul fragments, we can prevent his revival, if we can get all four, that would be perfect." Merlin added.

"...I see, is that Squire spot still available?" Gwen bluntly asked.

"Wait...you want to become Arthur's squire? What caused this change of heart? I thought you wanted to go home." Merlin raised an eyebrow.

"I do want to go home. I was thinking though, if this Mordred guy manages to break out of whatever prison you placed him in, it'll be not only bad news for Glenwood but for Fayrule as well, right?"

"Well yes, to put it bluntly." Merlin answered honestly.

"Then I want to help put this Lord of Calamity down too. If this guy is as dangerous as you say, then you're going to need all the help you can get. A squire is like a partner as well, right?"

"Well, you would be on equal ground with the main Shepherd, which in our case will be Arthur. While there's only some things that only the Shepherd can do, you do share a few abilities, like Armatization and the ability to purify, although to a lesser extent. Think of yourself like an apprentice." Merlin explained.

"Good enough for me. So what do you say Arthur? Are you okay with me being your Squire? Or...you know, I'd understand if you'd want to wait for someone else." Gwen pressed for an answer.

"What? No, of course I wouldn't mind it, Gwen, you would be a great help!" Arthur shook his head violently. "But...is this what you really want? I won't accept if you feel like that you're being forced into this, if you want to go back to Fayrule, all you have to do is say, I won't think any less of you." Arthur reasoned.

"I appreciate that you're considerate of my feelings, but I'll be frank, if I didn't want to be a Squire, I would have already walked away." Gwen smilled lightly. "It's true that the thought of just going home right away crossed my mind, since I have people waiting for me back home, plus I want my god damn Gald that I was promised by my client upon completing the delivery."

"But?" Merlin pressed on.

"Well, in the end, I want to help out if I can. It might sound selfish, but I want the power to protect those I love too, but even with these two Angelus Pacifiers as Merlin called them, I know it won't be enough against bigger Hellions like this Lord of Calamity by myself. People might call me reckless but I'm not that stupid. Since we both share the same desire to protect, it would be better for us to work together than alone. So don't worry, I'm okay with this." Gwen finished.

"I see. Well, I certainly won't turn away your help if that's how you feel. Looking forward to traveling with you, Gwen." Arthur offered a hand out to Gwen.

She looked confused at the gesture. "Nothing's happening."

"Wait...do you not know what a handshake is? It's a customary way of saying greeting someone." Merlin blinked in surprise.

"Really?" Gwen seemed pleasantly surprised by this reply and took hold of Arthur's hand and gripped it with a little more strength than a handshake actually needed.

"Owch! Gwen! I think you're crushing my hand!"

"Oops, sorry!" Gwen jumped in surprise and let go right away.

"Wow, that's one heck of a grip you have, Gwen." Arthur rubbed his hand with his other one.

"Yeah...sorry about that. Even my brother said I could be way too heavy handed with things."

"You have a brother?" Arthur curiously perked up at this.

"Well...kinda...it's a little complicated, I'd rather not go into it." Gwen had withdrawn back to her secretive self.

"Oh...okay! I won't say anymore." Arthur respected her privacy and then turned to Merlin. "Merlin, we need to go to Avalon Temple to get your Armatus back, right? You think they'll have swords designed for duel wielding somewhere in that ruin?"

"I beleive there's an armoury in the same place where my Armatus was stored for safe-keeping. Why do you ask?" Merlin tried to picture his temple's layout from his mind's eye.

"Um, Merlin...my weapons are back at the Inn, where I'm sure if I told Uncle Mikleo and the others about my decision, they'd ground me forever." Arthur sweatdropped.

"Ah, I see what you mean. You're right, it's probably best if we left without alerting them."

"We've still got some time before nightfall, we'll make our move to sneak out through the Aquaduct then." Gwen glanced at the sky to see where the sun's postion currently was.

"We should prepare oursleves in the time being."

As the trio planned out their escape from Ladylake, none of them saw a certain familar figure that was hiding from sight.

* * *

The moon was high in the sky, when the trio decided to make their way to the entrance of the Vivia Aquaduct, hiding behind the crates, they saw two guards were indeed keeping watch.

"Just like the Prince said, they are keeping an eye out for anyone trying to escape the city during the lockdown." Merlin confirmed.

"So, are we going to put them to sleep like you suggested?" Arthur asked the snow-haired Half-Seraph.

"Indeed, by the time they awaken, we'll be long gone from the Aquapolis." Merlin nodded in response to Arthur's question.

"Or we could just knock them out." Gwen suggested. Both of the boys gave her a disappoving look. "What? It worked for me just fine when I sneaked into the Sanctuary."

"So that was your doing on that night with those knocked out guards at the rear entrance." Merlin figured out.

"Could you really picture that Hellion sparing them? He'd probably eat them." Gwen pointed out.

Arthur gave an involuntary shiver when he recalled Lunnare's words about 'eating' him.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Y-yeah. Just a bad memory. I'll be fine." Arthur reassured.

"Okay, give me a few minutes and they'll be sleeping in no tim-" Just as Merlin was about to start casting his grey arte, the Guards suddenly collasped on the floor by themsleves.

"Wow, that's some amazing casting speed!" Gwen commented.

"But...that wasn't me." Merlin shook his head.

"Nah, I just knocked their heads together, being invisible to humans with no resonance does have it's benefits. Especially in suitations like this." A certain someone came out of hiding. "You can come out of hiding now, Arthur. You too, Mr. Arch Lord."

"Uncle Zavied?!" Arthur cried out.

"Uncle?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Heh heh...Let's just say my family is the unusual kind." Arthur laughed sheepishly.

"You've spied on us didn't you?" Merlin crossed his arms.

"Uncle Zaveid, you knew about this?" Arthur looked at Merlin and then back at the Wind Seraph.

"Pretty much. I overheard your whole plan about escaping Ladylake through the Aquaducts. You know if Mik-boy heard this, he'd hunt you down to the ends of the earth, just saying." Zaveid shurgged.

"Please don't tell him! He'd never understand." Arthur begged.

"You kidding? Even a young boy must one day become a man and carve his own path of for himself."

"Wait...then, you're letting me go?" Arthur asked with a hopeful smile.

Zaveid approached Arthur and gently ruffled his hair. "Mikleo might not realize it or be willing to accept it yet, but you're not a helpless little chick anymore. You're stronger than you think and deep down I think even he knows that."

"Oh...did you also hear about..."

"About your fears about being a Shepherd? Yup, heard that part too. Y'know, Sorey had a hard time too when he became Shepherd, he even had the same fears and doubts about himself as you do. But he still managed to overcome it all and became a legend among Shepherds."

"Even Mr. Sorey?"

"Oh yeah. I won't bore you with details, you've probably heard most of it from Mikleo himself. Point I'm making here is that I know you'll be fine. After all, you've been raised by us, and you turned out to be a fine kid. You've got Mikleo's smarts, Edna's stubbornness, my charms, obviously, and Lailah's...well...let's just say you've got something from her too."

Arthur gave sad smile and hugged the wind Seraph. "I'm so sorry, I feel awful for doing this to all of you after everything you've done for me."

Zaveid simply patted the boy's back with his usual grin. "Aw kid, don't you go worrying about us, it's our job to worry. Although, you do relaize once Sorey and the others hear about this, we're just going to try and catch up to you."

"I know, but this is something I have to do if I'm going to become a Shepherd." Arthur nodded.

"I know, kiddo. You've got your own journey to embark on. Just remember though, you're not alone, you've got Merlin here to support you, so be sure to return that support when it's your turn to help to aid him."

"Yeah, I know that now. It makes me feel better to know that. Thank you Uncle Zaveid. I'm going to do my best to become a Shepherd worthy of that trust." Arthur nodded recalling what Merlin told him eariler.

"That's more like it. Have more confidence in yourself, kid." Zaveid grinned. He then faced Merlin directly and whispered to him.

"Just between you and me, I don't care if you're a high-ranking lord or if you're Lailah's old teacher, if anything happens to Arthur, I'll hunt you down no matter where you run and you'll wish you stayed in that temple." Zaveid warned him lowly with a serious glare.

"Nice to see your faith in my abilities is overwhelmingly positive." Merlin sarcastically replied. "I give you my word, I will not let any harm come to him."

"Good, just so we're clear on that." Zaveid was satisfied and then turned his gaze at Gwen.

"Ohhh, you're that girl that got arrested with Arthur and Merlin. Huh, funny, there's something odd about you, I can't put my finger on it, you seem a little different from most humans."

"Is it because I'm Fayrulian?" Gwen narrowed her eyes.

Zaveid gave it some thought before shurgging. "Who knows? Maybe I just imagined it." He then pulled out two familar swords from a spot in the corner that Zaveid hid from their sight.

"My swords! Uncle Zaveid, thank you for getting them! How did you do it without anyone noticing?" Arthur smiled brightly and took them gladly.

"That's my little secret." Zaveid winked. "You should get going, I only told the guys I was just taking a short walk around the city, I'm sure Edna will be the first to suspect something if I'm not back soon."

"Uncle Zaveid, can you please give this to Uncle Mikleo? I wrote it eariler today while we were preparing for tonight. I felt like I should at least leave a note for him so he won't think I got kidnapped or something." Arthur pulled out a small envelope from his pocket and offered it to the Wind Seraph.

"I can handle that." Zaveid agreed to the request and took hold of the envelope. "You know this isn't going to change anything, he's still going to be furious with you."

"Oh I knew that from the start. Don't worry about me though, like you said, I'm not alone." Arthur laughed softly.

"See? Now you're catching on." Zaveid smirked.

"We can't waste anymore time, if we want to make it back to Avalon Temple sometime today, we'll need to make a start now." Merlin told Arthur.

"Okay, coming!" Arthur nodded, he attached the duel swords to his hips and gave one last wave to Zaveid before following Merlin and Gwen.

"...Stay safe, kiddo." Zaveid turned around and noticed a certain Earth Seraph abruptly came out of hiding. "You heard all that, Edna?"

"Every single word." Edna in her usual bluntness stated the fact.

"You're not going to stop him? Now would be your last chance before they get out of the city."

"I'm not that cruel to get in the way of Arthur's decisons. If it was his choice of his own free will, who am I to hold him back? Besides, this will be good for Meebo as well." Edna shook her head and twirled her umbrella.

"Still, that Arch Lord better take good care of him in our stead. I'll never forgive him otherwise." Edna added quietly. "We better head back to the Inn and break the news to the others. Or rather, you break the news to them."

"You're going to let me take the full brunt of Mikleo's wrath, aren't you?" Zaveid scowled.

Edna pulled her best sadistic grin. "Of course, after all, I'm not the one who knew all about Arthur's escape plan and decided not to stop him when you were fully capable of doing so."

"...Aw man, now I know how Arthur feels..."

* * *

The trio arrived in the Vivia Aqueducts, while the area looked unchanged, there was a significant change in the air, while not completely clean of malevolence, the scent of it still lingered in the air, along with the scent of wet moss and rusty ladders.

"Malevolence, it's faint, but I can still sense it." Arthur clarified as soon as they finished descending the stars.

"Sounds like part of the Shepherd Pact is in effect even though it hasn't been offically sealed yet. One of the things you'll find when you become a Shepherd is that your resonance and your five senses connected to it, will be great enhanced." Merlin explained.

"That doesn't really sound much of a benefit. I mean I can already see malevolence and Hellions."

"True, but it never hurts to have them more accutely attuned. You might one day be thankful for your increased sensitivity since it can save many lives." Merlin lightly argued.

"So we could be facing Hellions while trying to get out?" Gwen asked.

"There's always a possibility. Since I still lack my Armatus, the best I can do is cast Seraphic Artes for healing and support aid, but once I get it back. I should be able to reclaim at least good portion of my original strength. Until I can get my body back, my power is only a shadow of my true potential, and I can't make the pact offical without that Armatus.

"That explains why that Armatus is so important. Don't worry, we'll find it. If it's as safe-guarded as you say, then I'm sure it'll still be there when we get back to Avalon Temple." Arthur encouraged.

"You can just leave the fighting to us til then, we can take it, right Arthur?" Gwen smirked, pulling out her two pistols, the twin Angelus Pacifiers.

"Of course. At least now I can make good use of all that sparring I did with Big Sis and Uncle Mikleo." Arthur agreed full-heartedly.

"Let's go then, hopefully this place is not hard to navigate." Merlin scanned the area, trying to figure out which way to go.

"I used to sneak around here to go play outside Ladylake without Aunt Lailah knowing, so I'll lead the way." Arthur voiced, taking the lead to guide them.

"Wow, I never would have pictured you to be such a mischivious child." Gwen made a toothy grin.

"Well...It wasn't like I used the Aqueducts to play around in Lakehaven heights all the time. I just did it on days when I was especially bored." Arthur lightly blushed in embarrassment.

"Still, your guidance would be greatly appreciated. As I'm sure neither Miss Mayland nor I know Ladylake quite as well as you. By all means, lead on, oh fearless Shepherd." Merlin teased.

"Merlin, please stop while you're ahead. I can cast wind Seraphic Artes, you know." Arthur huffed and gave a light warning.

After a few more jabs, Merlin decided to spare Arthur's pride and allowed him to guide them out of the Aqueducts.

* * *

After what felt like hours wandering the long hallways of the Vivia Aqueducts, fighting the occasional few low rank Hellions that comprised of Slimes and small bats, it wasn't long until they came to what looked like a simple wooden trapdoor above them with stairs heading upwards towards it.

"Here we are. This will take us out to the Lakehaven Heights, it leads to an old foundation near the city. I have a theory that it used to be perhaps an old watermill since it the foundation is the right size and shape, I can't confirm it through since there was no sign of the wheel that would usually power the watermill."

"I wonder why they built such a exit this far out? It felt like we traveled miles from the entrance." Gwen wondered.

"I think this was used a secret passage for the people who probably lived up there before it was abandoned. Or it could have been built to facilate an escape for the Hyland Royal Family in case of an emergency, like they did for Rountabel Palace." Arthur theorized.

"You've really been heavily influenced by that Water Seraph, haven't you?" Merlin seemed impressed.

"Heh heh..." Arthur nervously laughed. "You could say that." He climbed up the stairs to approach the trapdoor and tried to open it, but it wasn't budging with Arthur's gentle attempts at first.

"I'll be glad just to get out of here, there's only so much of this place I can take without screaming my head off." Gwen sighed.

With one hard push, Arthur lodged the rotting trapdrop and allowed it to swifly open, allowing light to shine through small hole, alas the trapdoor ended up being torn of the hinges due to it's age, now broken beyond repair.

"Oops...I think I used too much force. Well...at least it's opened." Arthur sweatdropped.

"If the foundation is as old you say, it was only a matter of time before the door would break due it's age, don't feel bad about it." Merlin patted Arthur's back.

Climbing out of the trapdoor's entrance, Arthur climbed out first, then helped Gwen and Merlin out by giving them a lift up.

They had to give time for their eyes to adjust to the sun's early morning light due to being underground for a long period of time, once their eyes had sharpened and accustomed to their new surroundings, they took a look around to see just how far they were from the city.

"Oh wow! You can see the entire city from here! Did we really walk underneath that giant lake?!" Gwen was in awe of the view.

Merlin saw the foundation that Arthur mentioned, it right next to the lakeside of the giant lake itself that had Ladylake smack in the middle of it with a large elegant looking bridge stretching all the way to the mainland.

He could see why Arthur thought it could have been a old watermill, it was in the right spot and it did have the right measurements to compare it to a watermill. However, time had not been kind and has eroded nearly all evidence of whatever once stood here.

"Those Aquaducts are indeed an impressive feat, to think they stretched as far as here. I wonder if there had been one directly linked to Avalon Temple? Perhaps not." Merlin whistled.

"You don't know? I kind of figured it was from your era, isn't it?" Arthur curiously questioned.

"Hmm...perhaps, I do know that there was an Altar used to forge pacts with Shepherds in the days of yore somewhere in below this lake, which I assume in time became known as the Vivia Aqueduct in today's era."

"Chances are that the Aqueduct itself was probably built around the same time Ladylake was founded by it's forebearers, the shrine dedicated to the Altar itself was probably discovered by them and they built their underground waterway from there."

"So not even you know for sure, huh?"

"Sorry, not even I don't have all the answers, Arthur. There are so many things still remain a mystery in this world. If I knew everything, I would find life very boring, wouldn't you?" Merlin smiled.

Arthur smiled back and nodded. "Yeah, that's what makes exploring ruins so exciting after all, you never know what kind of untold history you can unearth."

"Hey, look here! I found something!" Gwen ran back to them, showing what looked like a small sphere jewel.

"That's an Earthern Historia!" Merlin indentified right away.

"Oh, I know of them. They're also called as Iris Gems, they're really awesome. They're spheres crafted by the Seraphim through their Artes to record their memories. I guess you could say it's like taking a photograph but instead it records a peice of your memory and plays it out for anyone who has resonance to view them.

"Huh, I never heard of those before, sounds handy though. Sooo...how do you use this thing? Does it have an on button somewhere on here?" Gwen investigated the gem, trying to find a way to activiate it."

"Hmmm, maybe it only works for Shepherds and their Seraphim see. I've heard some Earthern Historia sometimes have such a requirement as a security measure." Merlin suggested.

"Awww, that totally sucks." Gwen pouted.

"Let's keep it with us for now though, we can always try it again once the pact is verified and see if we can view it then." Merlin added.

"Sounds like a plan. Catch." Gwen playfully threw it to Arthur who caught it in midair.

Arthur managed to fit it safely into his leather side pouch before turning back to Gwen and Arthur. "So, onwards to Avalon Temple! Which is...this way?" Arthur pointed south and started walking that way before he noticed the other two were still standing still.

"Um...Arthur? Avalon Temple is this way." Merlin coughed lightly before correcting him, pointing in the oppersite direction.

"...I knew that!" Arthur quickly turned around and made sped up his walking pace in the right direction that Merlin had just pointed out.

"...I think you and I should be in charge of navigation from now on." Gwen whispered quietly to the Light Half-Seraph.

"Agreed, don't say this in Arthur's face though, Miss Mayland. He's got enough low self-esteem problems as it is." Merlin whispered back.

"Oh yeah, one other thing. Stop calling me by my last name. My _name_ is Gwen. G-w-e-n."

"Oh...very well then, Miss Gwen."

"...Close enough." Gwen sighed, this boy was hopeless.

"C'mon guys! Let's go and get Merlin's Armatus!" Arthur called out to them waving as he had made quite a distance from where they were.

Gwen and Merlin caught up with the soon-to-become Shepherd as they made way to their first destination of the long journey that awaited them, Avalon Temple, as a new dawn rose before them.

* * *

Hello everyone, that is chapter 5! I hope you've enjoyed the latest chapter.

Next chapter will be essentially dedicated to Sorey and our lovely Seraphim gang. And how they take the news of Arthur's decison to travel alone with Merlin and Gwen. Sorey also soon learns that something about his body has changed since his time as Maotelus's vessel.

Look forward to Chapter 6: Sorey's Metamorphsis

Until then, happy reading! Moogle Empress out!

Moogle: Kupo!


	7. Chapter 6: Escape From Ladylake

**Chapter 6: Escape From Ladylake**

* * *

 _Dear Uncle Mikleo and everyone, if you're reading this letter, then you know that I'm no longer in Ladylake. I'm really sorry not telling you this face to face, but I've known you long enough to know, you'd never let me go on my own if I did._

 _Leontius probably told you that we were proven innocent thanks to Leontius defending us the entire time. He might have also told you to expect us, please don't be mad at him, this was my decision and...I'm okay with it._

 _I decided that until I become stronger and a worthy Shepherd, I would need to get stronger not only as a Shepherd, but also a person. Don't worry about me, I have Merlin and Gwen (that's the girl who was with us when we got arrested by the Hyland soldiers) with me. I still have my doubts if I can really do this, but I think I'll be able to overcome this in time, after all, Merlin's counting on me to help stop Mordred, the first Lord of Calamity from awakening and taking revenge on the whole world! Most of all, I want to protect the people most precious to me, you know who those people are, Uncle Mikleo._

 _I know Merlin said that he would share the burden of this duty with me, but if I'm going to become his partner, I have a responsibility to make sure I support him the best way I can, just as he will for me._

 _I guess I should help Merlin and Gwen now with the supplies for the journey ahead so I'll finish the letter here._

 _We'll see each other again soon! I'm definitely coming back after all this, so you can lecture me to death when everything is back to normal. Although I know you'd probably try to follow me even if I told you otherwise._

 _I love you all very much. Until we meet again, goodbye for now._

 _From Arthur_

 _PS: Also, can you tell Mr. Sorey to not worry about me either? I'd feel really bad otherwise since I know he probably has a lot more to deal with than I do._

Sorey finished reading the letter with a sad expression. Mikleo was in process of chewing out Zaveid big time for not doing anything to stop Arthur after he revealed everything and showed them the letter Arthur left behind.

"I feel really bad for Arthur. I can relate a lot with how he feels." Sorey sighed.

"Arthur had always been very considerate of our feelings, I'm sure it wasn't easy for him to do this." Lailah clutched her hands closely together.

"This was Arthur's choice, we can't decide for him. Did anyone ever stop you when you decided to become Maotelus' vessel? Although I'm sure Meebo would have loved to try and change your mind." Edna stated simply.

"Heh heh, point taken, Edna." Sorey laughed sheepishly, scratching his cheek. "I still don't think it's right that he feels he can't ask us to help."

"He's always been shy about asking for help. It was probably developed from having Mother Henleo around him constantly."

"That overprotective huh?" Sorey sweatdropped.

"Well...Mikleo definitely...um...takes guardianship over Arthur very seriously." Lailah smiled uneasily.

Just then Mikleo and Zaveid finally remerged from the other room. The Water Seraph still looked furious but Zaveid looked like he had just been through hell and back.

"So, how did it go?" Edna smirked at Zaveid, which she was awarded with an annoyed glare.

"I thought I was actually going to die."

"All I did was yell at you and possibly threw a couple of punches in there during my anger." Mikleo growled.

"And it hurt like hell, Mikleo, when did you get so strong?" Zaveid countered.

"Mikleo, I'm sure Arthur will be okay, he's with Master Merlin. There's really no better person he could be with." Lailah tried to reassure.

"It's not that I don't trust Lord Merlin, that doesn't mean I approve of what he did to Arthur either, out of necessity or not. I know what you and Zaveid are going to say, Edna. I know this is Arthur's decision, and even if I wanted to, I couldn't change his mind."

"So you accept it then?" Edna pressed.

"Don't misunderstand, we're still going to find him. He made his choice to separate from us, but my choice is the same as it always had been, I'm going to go after him, even if he hates me for it."

"Mikleo, you know that would never happen. I don't know Arthur as well as you guys, but I know he could never hate you. He even stated in his letter that he already knew what your reaction would be when you read that letter." Sorey smiled.

Mikleo smiled softly but becoming serious once more. "That reminds me, you said Maotelus also mentioned Merlin, right?"

"Oh, yeah. He said that we would need Merlin to help us since he knows the first Lord of Calamity better than we do, he also said that he was an 'Oracle' too, not sure what he meant by that though."

"But he's with Arthur now." Edna reminded them of the obvious.

"Yeaaahh...That kinda sucks." Sorey scratched his head.

"All the more reason to go after them." Mikleo stated.

"Where would we even begin to look?" Zaveid shrugged.

"...Lailah?" Mikleo turned to the Fire Seraph in hopes they could gleam the answer from her.

"Oh! Sorry, I almost tripped over my own feet, what was that again?" Lailah smiled sweetly.

"...Of course, I was silly to ask. How is that even related to the oath anyway?" Mikleo sighed and mentally cursed that oath.

"Wait...maybe they've gone back to Avalon Temple! I noticed Merlin didn't have a weapon with him, so maybe it's back at the Temple." The Shepherd clicked.

"That's true, he said himself that his original body was sealed away so he wouldn't able to physically carry anything while remaining formless. Now that we have a place to look, the problem is how are we going to get out of the city? They've placed the lockdown on Ladylake so no one could get in or out." Mikleo wondered.

"We could just walk past them." Edna suggested bluntly.

"They'll notice Sorey right away and even if he's the Shepherd, they aren't going to just let him walk out." Mikleo sighed.

"Um...actually..." Lailah started.

"Hm? What is it Lailah?" Sorey asked with concern.

"Sorey...? Have you felt a little different since Maotelus released you as his vessel? Like... do you feel lighter on your feet? Are you unable to sleep like you used to? Do you lack the need for food now?"

Sorey crossed his arms, closed his eyes and thought deeply about Lailah's question before opening them once again. "Now that you mentioned it...I noticed I hadn't aged at all, I mean I know I was abandoned by time so my body wouldn't change much, but really the one thing that's new is my hair is a bit longer."

Indeed, Sorey's hair had grown since he had reawakened, it wasn't crazy long like Mikleo's but at least now he sported a thin ponytail that laid lazily on his left shoulder, Sorey wasn't going to lie, he did like the new look. He wouldn't admit it, but he had notice the things that Lailah mentioned as well.

"Wait, what are you trying to say, Lailah?"

"Ooh look, a buzzy little bee!" Lailah randomly looked outside the window and pretended to see something.

"I'm beginning to think she's ignoring our questions on purpose." Mikleo whispered to Sorey.

"Well...never mind! Let's try to get out of the city somehow." Sorey shook his head. Sorey and Mikleo were the first to leave the Inn, leaving Edna, Zaveid and Lailah.

"Why didn't you just outright tell them?" Zaveid questioned.

"They're going to find out eventually, even if we don't tell them, but they might be upset with us for not mentioning it sooner." Edna agreed with Zaveid for a change.

"I...don't know if I should. I did suspect it and I think Master Merlin knew this too. I was hoping to be proven wrong since Master Merlin didn't say anything about it, but maybe...he didn't want to say anything for Sorey's sake, just like me." Lailah shook her head.

"Let's go outside, I'm a little concerned about Sorey and his pact with Maotelus now." Zaveid told them as they followed after Sorey and Mikleo.

* * *

Once they were all outside, they headed straight for the entrance to Ladylake, where a great number of Hyland soliders were stationed to stop people from getting in or not.

Once they arrived, found that the soldiers were talking with...a young man? He was with several knights wearing armour

They all were wearing armour that looked foreign to Hyland and Rolance. The full body armour was black with grey knight tunics underneath the armour and the metal had a shiny almost sleek look, even the helmets looked elegant yet durable was the metal used for the armour different than the metal used in Glenwood?

The leader among them appeared to be in his early twenties, he had black hair that ended to just halfway down his neck and dark green eyes. He had elegant-looking navy blue military coat, the neck of the coat was collared, covering where his neck would be visible, had gold rims at the ends with long swallowtails at the ends, white leggings and long length army boots and white aristocratic gloves. He also had a chestpiece armour over his coat with the emblem of what Army he was part of, the emblem with two dragons entangled in conflict and a sword between them.

"I'm sorry, Sir. However, Ladylake is currently under lockdown due to-"

"Due to an assassination attempt on your Prince. We are aware of this, however, we would like to enter the city regardless to speak with your King." The human nodded.

"The King of Hyland will only allow people to freely enter the city if they have important business that involves the Kingdom's well-being." The Hyland soldier explained.

"Is that so? Very well, allow me to introduce myself," The man closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again and pulling out what looked like a parchment with a royal seal waxed on it. The symbol itself was the exact same emblem that was on the man's armour. "I am Lancelot Deluca. Knight-Commander of the Zanarkian Imperial Army. I have come on behalf of the soon-to-be crowned 125th Emperor of the Zanark Empire to speak with the King of Hyland, it is a matter of urgency."

"...I see..." The Hyland solider on the right slowly nodded before whispering to his counterpart. "Zanark Empire, that's one of the major capitals of Fayrule! What do the Northerners want to do with us? They didn't even want anything to do with Glenwood until now."

"Who knows? I heard that Zanark Empire are nothing to sneeze at though, I hear they're a force to be reckon with! They even pushed the Rolance Army back without even breaking a sweat once. Maybe we should let His Majesty know about this, I wouldn't want to get on their bad side if I was the King."

"Whoa, the Zanark Empire were able to overpower the Rolance Empire?" Sorey perked up curiously.

"I remember reading that Rolance once went to war with a nation of Fayrule, so that must have been the Zanarkian Empire." Mikleo recalled.

"I don't get it. If they had the power to overtake Rolance's army, why didn't they just press on and claim the land for their own?" Edna raised an eyebrow.

"Perhaps it was just a demonstration of strength? Rolance has been known to be dangerously ambitious in the past, after all." Lailah wondered.

"Who knows? I want to know why their Emperor decided to send this guy over a normal emissary. He looks like he should be leading an army, not dealing with politics." Zaveid crossed his arms.

"Very well, we will report to the King about your request, until then, please wait here." The Hyland solider on the right replied, turning around and started to walk back to the city with the other solider. There was still a group of soldiers keeping watch.

"I have an idea how we can get pass the Hyland soldiers. Remember the water bubble I was able to make that would cloak ourselves from being spotted back in Pendrago? Perhaps I can do the same here." Mikleo formed an idea from the time they had to sneak out of Pendrago during Sorey's first journey as the Shepherd.

"Can it last more than for a few seconds now?" Edna dully asked with a sly smile.

Mikleo blushed lightly. "I've gotten better I'll have you know. We should be able to get pass the guards without much problem."

"It beats doing nothing and we can't wait for the lockdown to be removed. I feel kinda bad for doing this, but we need to catch up with them somehow." Sorey nodded.

"I agree, every minute we waste increases the distance between us and Arthur." Mikleo agreed.

"Just calm down and cast your stupid bubble, Mother Henleo." Edna poked the Water Seraph with her umbrella.

"It's not stupid!" Mikleo retorted, but proceeded to create a water bubble big enough to envelop Sorey and the other three Seraphs, his control over his Seraphic artes had greatly improved since the last time he had used this trick, so it would last much longer than it did in the past.

With that, they proceeded to sneak past both the Hyland Guards and the visitors from Fayrule. Sorey glanced over to the one called Lancelot, who seems to be staring back as if he could see them as if they were standing right in front of him.

"...That Lancelot guy...I think he can still see us." Sorey noted.

"That's dumb even for you, Sorey." Edna scoffed.

They continued to sneak past without no alarm being set off, the Knight-Commander's eyes merely just followed them until they were halfway across the bridge.

"Milord, is something amiss?" One of the knights that looked more decorated than the others asked of his superior.

"...No. It is nothing, Repsol." The Knight-Commander simply shook his head. "An assassination attempt on the only heir to the throne of Hyland...And it took place around the same time as someone tried to murder our own only royal heir to the Imperial Throne. I suspect someone is trying to spark a war with more than just Rolance."

"Do you think it was a ruse to incite a war on a global scale, Milord? But that would be...insane!" The decorated knight known as Repsol questioned.

"Indeed. It is certainly something Fayrule doesn't need right now. The rising incidents due to the increased levels of malevolence is straining our resources. Although I can imagine those old fools in the Imperial Court would see this as a good opportunity to try and extend our empire's territory, all the while claiming it's for good of the empire."

"I see their words still leave a bad taste in your mouth, Lord Deluca." Repsol pulled off his helmet to reveal a youthful face, with light brown hair that was tied into a short ponytail and doe brown eyes, he looked too delicate and weak to be part of the Imperial Army, but like most things, Repsol was much more than he appeared.

"As usual, my Aide-De-Camp seems to have an archive of memory dedicated to every exchange of dialogue the Imperial Court and I have." Lancelot gave a small smirk. The smaller aide-de-camp simply nudged his 'superior'.

"I'll have you know Seraphim have excellent memories, Lord Deluca." Repsol gave a defiant huff.

"You know if we weren't in public view of our forces behind us, I would prefer you calling me Lancelot." Lancelot whispered.

"That would be favouritism, you know." Respol reminded.

"Of course, but that's because you are my favourite." Lancelot playfully countered.

Repsol simply rolled his eyes before he placed his helmet back over his face. "You know, these Glenwoodians would probably think you were mad, talking to someone they can't even see."

"It can't be helped. This land had been stricken with malevolence for a long time, it amazes me that there are still those among these people who can see Seraphim still despite this."

"Lord Deluca, what will become of the courier who delivered the parchment here. According to Imperial Law, it's still a crime to even assist a criminal, regardless if they were aware or not." Repsol asked.

"I hardly see a reason why the girl should be punished. She was merely used as a scapegoat for the real criminal, nothing more." Lancelot argued.

"I agree. However, the Imperial Court will not see it that way."

"Respol, when did I ever care about anything those old screeching vultures had to say?"

Repsol chuckled. "I'm sure Prince Elyan would agree with you, when out of hearing range of the said Imperial Court, of course."

"I don't like the thought of being away from the Empire when Prince Elyan had just gone through two traumatic experiences in the same night, not to mention being left alone with those vultures. The sooner we get this diplomatic mission done, the sooner we can return to the Prince's side." Lancelot frowned at the thought of the young prince being left with no one but the Imperial Court, Seraphim above only knows what they were whispering to him.

Repsol softly smiled. "Prince Elyan is extremely lucky to have such a faithful Commander as you as the head of Zanark's Imperial Army."

"Prince Elyan is just a child. He's also in a vulnerable state right now, I wouldn't doubt that they would take advantage of the situation."

"Oh that's right...I almost forgot about-" Repsol was about to say before the Hyland Knight from before returned.

"I have returned with a message from His Majesty. He will grant you an audience with him."

* * *

Back with Sorey and his four Seraph friends, they had reached the end of the bridge and Mikleo removed the bubble over them once they had succeeded in crossing the bridge.

"Wow Mikleo! You've really gotten better! That was incredible!" Sorey beamed.

The Water Seraph lightly blushed. "Well...I certainly had plenty of time to get better at my Seraphic Artes."

 _'I swear that Lancelot guy saw right through us even with Mikleo's bubble. Could he have resonance too?'_ Sorey mentally asked himself.

"So, we've broken out of Ladylake. Now we need to find this Avalon Temple." Edna reminded them.

"The only ones who know the location is myself, Sorey, Arthur and...I believe you know as well Lailah."

Lailah didn't answer, but her face told her the answer Mikleo wanted.

"Then we'll leave the navigation to you guys then, Edna and I have no clue where this temple could be." Zaveid shrugged.

"Lead the way, Mother Henleo." Edna smirked.

"Would you stop calling me that?!" Mikleo snapped.

"Nope. Deal with it." Edna countered so bluntly.

"C'mon you two, you can bicker while we're walking. We need to get to that temple before it's too late to catch up to them."

"Ah, that reminds me. I did some research on Lord Merlin from that book I mentioned days ago." Mikleo recalled.

"Oh? For what reason?" Lailah wondered.

"Just curious since there's not that many records of him in most of the history books. He was even only given a passing mention in the Celestial Record."

"Ah, there was a good reason for that. Many written works about Master Merlin were hidden away, since it was feared they would get stolen. I'm not sure if they survived the passage of time." Lailah told them.

"The book I must have found then, must have been one of them." Mikleo suggested, showing the book to Lailah if she recognized it. It was a faded blue book with a intricate emblem engraved on the leather cover. It had the symbols of the four Seraph Lords, along with four other symbols underneath it like a mirror's reflection.

"Oh my! This is the Record of Aurelius!"

"Record of Aurelius? Is it like the Celestial Record?" Sorey wondered.

"Not quite. It's more of a memoir, Aurelius is a powerful Seraph from the Era of Asgard, he was one of the companions of the Shepherd that fought against Mordred, the first Lord of Calamity." Lailah shook her head.

"I see, that explains why there's a more personal tone to the writing. It's all in ancient Asgardian so I haven't been able to translate much. Although, I was able to gleam some information on Lord Merlin. According to this, he's a friend to Aurelius and Maotelus."

"Wait! Maotelus and Merlin were **friends**?! That's something I didn't know!" Zaveid jumped back in surprise.

"Oh, that's why Maotelus asked me to seek out Merlin, they were old friends so he knew he could be trusted. He could have just told me that though." Sorey clicked.

"Yes, I believe that is the case. However, I think Lord Maotelus also knows Master Merlin is probably the only Seraph capable of standing on equal ground with Mordred at this point." Lailah nodded.

"What about this Aurelius guy? Isn't he a friend to Merlin like this book said? Wouldn't it be good to ask for his help too if he helped to fight against Mordred as well?" Zaveid raised a question.

"...I don't know where Lord Aurelius could be now." Lailah shook her head, and it wasn't that she couldn't tell because of her oath, she really didn't know where this Seraph was.

"I bet Maotelus might know if we asked him." Edna suggested.

"Let's worry about Arthur first." Mikleo shot down. "There's also something else I want to ask Lailah, and please don't tell me this is against your oath too." Mikleo turned to the Fire Seraph. "Can...Lord Merlin really read the future? Aurelius wrote this down himself in the book, so I doubt that is against your oath."

"...Wait? He can do that?" Sorey blinked.

"Yes. Master Merlin is called an Oracle for that reason. By using the stars, he can predict future events before they occur, he can also read the past by reading those stars as well." Lailah nodded.

"Whoa..."

"But there's a catch isn't there?" Zaveid asked.

"Yes, he is unable to read them in the day or if a domain is covered in malevolence. For the most part his prediction come true, but there had been cases where Master Merlin had misread and made mistakes based on those inaccurate visions."

"I see. It's a risky gamble to try and control fate itself in your hands." Edna bluntly answered.

"That is why Master Merlin rarely uses his gift of seer sight now...He still blames himself..." Lailah looked sadly at the lake.

"He blames himself? What did he do?" Sorey asked curiously.

"Oh look! A little bluebird!" Lailah randomly pointed out in the sky.

"Aw man, and here I thought we were on a roll." Sorey sighed in defeat.

"So Lord Merlin is both a Oracle and an Arch Lord? That's quite an accomplishment." Mikleo mentally noted this new information to his memory.

"Is that all you were able to get from that book though?" Sorey questioned.

"Unfortunately, yeah. Like I said, Asgardian language is incredibly difficult to translate." Mikleo sighed.

"Don't forget that I know a bit of Asgardian language too. I can help you translate more of that book if you need it." Sorey smiled.

"I know. Thank you, Sorey. I might take you up on that, as much as it hurts my pride. I do want to find out more about what this 'Aurelius' had written down in here." Mikleo smiled back.

"Hey nerds, have you forgotten we're on a time limit?" Edna popped their little bubble of peace and reminded them of what they were meant to be doing.

"Ah that's right, Arthur! Let's get to Avalon Temple." Mikleo quickly placed the Record of Aurelius securely back into his adventurer's pouch before talking to walk briskly towards where Avalon Temple was.

"We better follow Mikleo. I'm little more worried about Mikleo right now, given how he's reacted to all this." Sorey turned to the other three Seraphs.

"You're telling me, it's a sad day when Sorey speaks more sense than Meebo." Edna sighed.

"Geez, still don't hold back your punches, do you?" Sorey sweatdropped.

And so, they hurried to Avalon Temple, hoping they will catch up in time before their trail goes cold.

* * *

Ah, finally! I managed to get this chapter done. x.x This one turned out to be a little tougher than I thought. XD

The chapter went though a few overhauls before the final result, even the chapter title has changed again. Sorry about the wait, and sorry about it being a little shorter than the other one. =3

And so our story turns back to Arthur and his friends, they arrive at Avalon Temple, but something sinister has seeped into the ancient temple, can they find Merlin's Armatus in time before whatever has snuck into the temple devours them? Will Sorey and his friends catch up to them in time?

Also, it would seem Knight-Commander Lancelot has an important favour to ask of Hyland's Prince, Leontius, just what is this favour? And just what is going on in Fayrule right now?

Please look forward to the next chapter. Chapter 7: Shepherd Arthur

Anyways, see you in the next chapter, until then, happy reading! Moogle Empress out.

Moogle: Kupo!


	8. Chapter 7: Shepherd Arthur

**Chapter 7: Shepherd Arthur**

* * *

"So Lunnare, give me a reason why I should not end you now? You've failed not only to kill the First Prince of Hyland, but you also allowed Merlin and his new Shepherd to escape with their lives intact." Mordred was staring down Lunnare from his throne of black crystals, one leg over the other, his face still could not be seen due to the shadows of the room, but Lunnare could see the anger that was burning in the Dark Seraph's eyes.

"Please forgive me, my Lord! I was unprepared for when that insufferable Shepherd brat and his Seraphim showed up." Lunnare pleaded.

"I do not want excuses!" Mordred raised his voice. "Two failed attempts at starting a new war to generate more malevolence and not one step closer to finding the remaining four fragments of my soul that Merlin stolen from me before sealing my true body away. I gave you power far beyond what Heldalf could have ever given you, it was more than enough to take care of one little boy."

"Lord Mordred, if I may add, we did manage to cause discord within the Zanark Empire by killing their Emperor." Morganna recalled.

"I suppose that is true. The death of Hyland's only heir would have been the more ideal outcome, however, perhaps we could yet use Zanark to our advantage." Mordred slowly nodded.

"B-but My Lord, that boy who got in the way was a Half-Seraph, I was afraid you would strike me down dead if I had killed him." Lunnare told a white lie, thankfully Lord Mordred was unaware that he had tried to eat the boy, but he still didn't want to let it slip unless he wanted to forfeit his life.

"Merlin's Shepherd is a fellow kin? How was I not told of this?"

"To be truthful, My Lord. We were unaware of the boy's heritage until recently as well. Why would Merlin, an Arch Lord, choose someone so inexperienced?" A tall man covered in a hooded formless robe that hid away his face from sight.

"Inexperienced? Oh please, experience had nothing to do with it, from what I could tell from my observations was that the boy was no different from Shepherd Sorey. Those two are pure of heart, something which you lacked apparently oh fallen Shepherd." A Half-Seraph girl dressed in a lacy black dress, silver hair tied in pigtails, white stockings, black shoes with golden eyes gleaming the dark mischievously.

"Hmph. Noisy brat." The 'fallen Shepherd' among them simply scoffed.

"Who are you calling noisy?!" She flared up.

"Lord Mordred, what do you intend to do with the younger Shepherd? If he officialises his pact with Merlin, we'll have more than just Shepherd Sorey to worry about. If you wish, I can deal with them before he becomes a threat." Morganna offered.

"..." A towering wall of a Seraph with a strong muscle build and tanned skin and short white hair merely watched the discussion unfold. He also seemed to look more like an ox than a man.

"...So in other words, the boy is nothing but a lamb. Curious." Mordred simply had a thoughtful look, placing a slender finger over his chin.

"Lord Mordred...What is it that you are planning now?" The 'Fallen Shepherd' asked.

"I would like to see just how far he will go before his spirit breaks, be it from the pressure of the duty of the Shepherd, or perhaps fall prey to malevolence itself. Who knows? Maybe the lamb will stray right into our flock." Mordred simply answered with his lips curling into a cruel smile.

* * *

Arthur, Merlin and Gwen had arrived at their destination, Avalon Temple.

"This is the place huh? I have to admit, I was expecting it to be a crumbling mess, but this actually looks pretty sturdy."

"Avalon Temple was built with seraphic artes, so perhaps the artes that lingered from it's creation helped to preserve the foundations of this place." Merlin suggested. "Anyway, hopefully our search won't take too long. Once we find my Armatus and officialise that pact, we can begin to start looking for the shrines of the Seraph Lords to increase the strength of our domain, and with luck, any clues about where Mordred's remaining soul fragments have been kept hidden." Merlin answered.

"Huh? I thought you were this high-ranking lord, how could your domain be weak?" Gwen recalled.

"If I had my original body, my domain would be stronger than this. However, as I have said many times before, my body is still sealed away along with Mordred's. As of right now, I'm as a weak as a kitten in comparison to my former strength. Arthur and I are linked due to making the Shepherd's pact with him. However, his domain is no better than my own right now. In order to increase the power of our domain and Arthur's powers as a Shepherd, we will need Sub Lords and to complete trials at the Shrines dedicated to the Seraph Lords themselves, scattered across both Glenwood and Fayrule." Merlin explained.

"Oh I think Aunt Lailah mentioned this to me once. Sub Lords are Seraphs who join the Shepherd and share their powers with his or her Shepherd via through the main Lord's pact." Arthur recalled.

"Correct. As the Arch Lord acting as your main Seraph, any other Seraph you encounter will have to make an oath with me. Of course, you get the final word though Arthur. You are after all the Shepherd here, not I." Merlin nodded.

"Well, I'm not even that yet though." Arthur shook his head.

"That will be remedied very shortly, you can still turn back now if-" Merlin offered but Arthur stopped him halfway.

Arthur shook his head furiously. "No way! I've come this far, why would I get cold feet now and run? It's okay Merlin, this is my choice and I'll deal with the consequences that come with it."

"...You remind me of him so much, it's terrifying." Merlin quietly noted.

"Huh?" Arthur tilted his head in confusion.

"Don't worry about it." Merlin shook his head with a soft smile and turned back at the temple. "If memory serves me correctly, there should be a hidden vault we called the 'Archive room'. It was mostly used to store precious relics and powerful magic artefacts. It is there that I hid my Armatus in order to avoid it getting stolen by thieves and tomb raiders in case they somehow managed to find this place." Merlin explained.

"A hidden vault? That sounds so cool! I can't wait to see what's stored away in there! Think of all the history that those relics could tell us! Where is it? Where is it?" Arthur jumped up and down excitedly like a little kid.

 _'...That Water Seraph has **definitely** left an impact on him.'_ Merlin mentally stated with a sweatdrop before coughing to regain his composure.

"So this is your temple, you should know the place like the back of your hand. Lead the way, oh great Arch Lord." Gwen teased.

"Ha. Ha. Ha." Merlin sarcastically laughed. "Getting back to the main task at hand, we'll need to go back to where I was first sealed away, there should something there that we'll need to gain access to the Archive Room."

"You mean like a key?" Arthur asked curiously.

Merlin answered with a single nod.

"Not gonna lie, I'm kinda impressed that you thought that far ahead to secure that vault." Gwen praised.

"I like to be prepared for any outcome." Merlin simply replied. "Oh, one other thing, even though we won't have worry about any real threats while we're here, keep an eye out for any low-levelled Hellions, you never know."

"Okay, let's go then." Arthur understood. Arthur and Gwen followed Merlin inside Avalon Temple,

* * *

The trio continued further into the temple depths, taking care of the smaller hellions that came their way with the help of Gwen's Angelus Pacifiers and Arthur's incomplete pact allowing him to at least purify the weaker ones.

It didn't take them long to find the room where it all began for Arthur and Merlin. This very room where Merlin had spent six thousand years resting inside that stone tablet as his vessel until Arthur came.

"Whoa...This place is...beautiful!" Gwen was in awe of the room, looking up to the skylight that that had the sun's rays shining through.

"...When I still sealed here in my own temple, that skylight was my only window to the world beyond this place. Six thousand years passed and gone, and I still don't know if I should consider this gift of mine a blessing or a curse..." Merlin monologue to himself.

"What's wrong Merlin?" Arthur asked with concern.

"It's nothing. Just remembering a few things from the past. This used to a place where scholars and astrologists would come far and wide to unlock the mysteries of our world. It used to be a place full of knowledge and wonder, now look at it." Merlin gave a sad look as he waved his arm to illustrate his point.

"I can understand what you mean, at least a little. I wish I could have seen what this place was like in its full glory. I bet it was amazing, and it's your temple right? It must be painful to see how much it has changed." Arthur sympathized.

"Don't worry for me. I'll get over it. I'm still adjusting to the fact that six thousand years have passed, yet it still feels like the Era of Asgard to me." Merlin shook his head.

"Well, you were trapped inside a stone tablet for a really long time. I bet it would be really easy to lose concept of time after so long.."

"Arthur...I..." Merlin started.

"Hm?"

"...No, it's nothing." Merlin then quickly shook his head.

"Hey! I found a jewel with a strange hole in it, is this the key you mentioned?" Gwen showed them an azure oval-shaped jewel with strange holes that looked like it was meant to slot into something.

"This is it! Where did you find it, Miss Gwen?" Merlin asked.

"It was near the tablet, it must have fell off when the tablet broke apart." She answered bluntly.

"I see, it must have been used as part of my vessel. That's a clever way of making sure the key doesn't end up in the hands of thieves. In the very least, this makes things much easier for us, all that's left is to head to the archive room."

"Is there any reason why it's called that? You could have just called it the 'Vault' or whatever." Gwen asked.

"We call it that since before we started using Earthern Historia or Iris Gems as you call them, we recorded a lot of our research or data in written form, such as books, encrypted tomes and so on. I had known a few Seraphs myself who had rather...unique ways of preserving their data. One even decided to paint the walls of my own temple in the archive room with pictures...He was very good at painting though so I didn't have to heart to remove it after all that hard work he put into it." Merlin explained.

"Wait...you mean like as in murals? Or carved Asgardian letters on stone walls?" Arthur became very alert and questioned the Light Half-Seraph.

"Murals...yes, that is a more appropriate way to call them, isn't it? I remember he did say that he wanted to record the legacy of-"

"I know where it is!" Arthur beamed.

"You do?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Uncle Mikleo and I came here to explore this temple before...well...you know, everything happened. When I went off by myself, I stumbled on to a room where there were murals in excellent condition despite the current state of the temple." Arthur explained.

"I see. That room was designed to be as weather-proof and airtight as possible since as I said, it was the archive room, there are many valuable relics stored there that needed to be preserved by any means we had at our disposal. So that room would be ideal for paintings or murals as well." Merlin nodded in Arthur's logic. "I'm impressed you were figure this out by just dumb luck."

"Heh heh..." Arthur. "Luck or not, that's got to be the room, but I don't remember seeing any relics, just the murals there.

"Ah, that's because the vault we're looking for is a hidden location, the room is suppose to be empty in order to deceive would-be tomb raiders that would pillage this place for the relics. By giving the illusion that is was an empty room, they would either assess that someone had beaten them, or that there was nothing worth stealing to begin with." Merlin answered.

"Oh I see, so it's a fake room!"

"Exactly."

"Impressive. You ancient Asgardians sure loved your security huh? I know a few countries who could learn a thing or two from this." Gwen smirked

"Not everyone took security this deeply as I did. The Seraphim of that era simply assumed that since they were considered holy, no one would dare think about stealing from a Seraph's temple without being cursed or hexed. Of course they never **actually** did that, but it was a good deterrent for a long time."

"However, I'm much more cautious, especially since a lot of the treasures of this temple are far more valuable than just mere trinkets, fine goods, gold, or jewellery. Avalon Temple was dedicated to preserving the history of our world and wisdom of the Asgardian people, both Human and Seraphim alike, and to me, that knowledge is worth protecting."

"I think that's a noble goal, Merlin." Arthur agreed.

Gwen simply shrugged. "I'm no scholar, but my old man usually preached that learning from past mistakes is a good thing, so you don't screw up and make the same mistakes over again."

"That's...a blunt way of putting it, Miss Gwen. However, your words do ring with truth in them." Merlin nodded. "We should head to that Archive room, we can't afford to be reckless and waste time."

"Right, I know the way there, follow me." Arthur nodded and started to lead the way.

"Isn't this your temple, Merlin? Why don't you show us?" Gwen pointed at the snow-haired Half-Seraph.

"I see no harm in letting Arthur guide the way. Besides, things are going to get harder for him from here onwards..." Merlin answered. "Once he becomes the Shepherd, he'll be forced to make hard choices, some...maybe even life-changing. It's good to help encourage him to lead now than later, so he might be better prepared for what lies ahead." Merlin explained.

"Huh...You weren't kidding when this Shepherd business was serious huh?" Gwen crossed her arms.

"You can still back out from being a Squire you know. Arthur will understand, he told you himself, did he not?"

"No way! I'm not backing out now. If Arthur's brave enough to keep going with his choice then I will too." Gwen barked.

Merlin simply smirked. "That's exactly what I was hoping to hear from you. Arthur will need a Squire like you to help him in places where I can't."

"Say what?" Gwen narrowed her eyes with a confused look.

"Nothing, don't mind me." Merlin shook his head.

"..." Gwen raised an eyebrow but shrugged in defeat and followed after Arthur. "Whatever."

"Guys, what's taking you so long?" Arthur called out, showing that he was already standing at the doorway.

"We're coming." Gwen waved care freely as both she and Merlin followed Arthur's lead through the labyrinth-like hallways of this crumbling temple.

* * *

Back in Rountabel Palace, an audience between Leontius, Lancelot and Repsol was taking place in the private chambers of his room after being escorted by a royal guard to him.

"I must sincerely apologise, I know you wanted to speak with my Father rather than myself, however, he and Chancellor Harken are in an important meeting with the Hyland Government about removing the lockdown so the people that visited Ladylake from Rolance can return home. He is unable to leave the talks right now, so I'm taking over this audience in his place." Leontius bowed respectfully.

Leontius had graciously offered them to sit at around tea table and offered refreshments which Lancelot and Repsol felt they had to comply to, thinking it would be very rude to decline such a show of hospitality from a member of Hylandian royalty.

"Well, I must say, I heard the stories about the infamous First Prince of Hyland, but I see they did you little justice." Lancelot admitted.

"You heard about me?" Leontius questioned curiously.

"While travelling to Glenwood, we talked to some of the locals in order to get a better idea of our surroundings. They do say knowledge is power after all." Repsol answered. "It was through them that we learned of you, they say you are very much admired by nearly all in Hyland."

"R-really? I...don't know about that. I have not done anything noteworthy, nothing on the scale of my ancestor anyway." Leontius's cheeks tinted red a little from what he had been told.

"Ah yes, Queen Alisha, she who was a low-ranking Princess, but scaled up to being second-in-line shortly afterwards due to her noble efforts of ensuring and nurturing the foundation of the peace treaty between Rolance and Hyland, ending the feud between the two nations brought upon by the large presence of malevolence within Glenwood at the time. She then proceeded to become the first ruling Queen of Hyland, when since before then, all their rulers had been kings."

"Amazing. You are well-versed in our history." Leontius was in awe.

"She made quite a few waves back home. Inspiring many who lived in the lower ring of Zanark City, giving hope to those who had none, even to this day." Lancelot softly smiled before taking a small sip of the tea that was offered as their choice of refreshment.

"Oh...you have a caste system in Zanark?" Leontius asked quietly.

"It's unfortunate, but it's true. It's been there since the Zanarkian Empire's founding. You have royal, nobility and aristocrats living on the upper ring, it's also where all our academic, research, and military facilities are stationed, then you have the middle ring that is essentially for middle-class civilians, it also serves as the main hub of our markets, and then there's the lower ring. You can figure out for yourself who lives in that layer of the city." Repsol explained.

"I see...That feels wrong." Leontius shook his head.

Lancelot gave a sad smile. "It is wrong morally, but according to how the Imperial Court and the rest of the Zanarkians see it, that's how it's always been for them, the Status Quo if you prefer. However, there has been a great increase of unrest within the Empire."

"We believe the sharp increase of unrest and acts of rebellious behaviour began with the assassination of our late Emperor." Repsol bluntly added.

Leontius almost dropped his cup when he heard the word 'assassination'. "The Emperor of Zanark is dead?!"

"This is one of the things we wanted to talk with your Father about, but yes, Emperor Falchion was murdered, we do not know who was the killer though. We can say that it had been a Hellion, the same type of assassin that tried to claim your life, almost a week ago now, if my maths is correct." Lancelot sighed.

"No...You don't think that..." Leontius placed the cup down gently back on the small tea plate.

"Yes, we also came to that conclusion as well. Perhaps your would be assassin and the killer who claimed the Emperor's life are in fact the same being." Repsol pushed his glasses lightly up the bridge of his nose.

"Repsol already confirmed that it was a Hellion, as a Seraph, he's more acute with such things than we humans are, so they can narrow down the list quite easily. Although he had not been able to find anything out to help us further."

"From what I could gather from my analysis, the Hellion is a humanoid with the knowledge of a skilled assassin. This Hellion wouldn't be too much of a problem if it had been a simple beast, but humanoid ones are the cunning thinking types, they're much more harder to figure out." Repsol spoke in a matter of factly tone.

"Um...if it helps, the Hellion was like how you described but he looked more like a fox-man." Leontius offered.

"A fox man Hellion? The shadow we saw briefly before it disappeared, didn't it look like that as well?" Repsol turned to Lancelot.

"So it would seem, Repsol. So we can safely assume that they are both indeed one and the same, but why kill the Emperor? It makes sense for them to target the First Prince of Hyland as he is the only direct heir to the throne of Hyland, therefore it would be easy to invoke a war with Rolance in the guise of revenge, especially if they somehow framed it to make it look like Rolance did the deed. The Emperor of Zanark though didn't have any direct connection to Hyland or Rolance, so why target him?"

"Lord Deluca, he did have a lot of enemies within Zanark itself, and although most of the Fayrule kingdoms held little interest or weren't antagonist towards Zanark, they could have played a role too. This is just a theory though, I could be wrong." Repsol told the Commander.

"Hmmm...There are too many things we still do not know, I don't see why the other Kingdoms would turn to a Hellion to do something like that."

"No, this is true. Could this have been an act driven by Malevolence? Repsol wondered.

"For all we know, it might well be." Lancelot crossed his arms.

"Um, forgive me for interrupting, but if the Emperor of Zanark is dead...who's ruling the Empire right now?"

"Well, by royal birthright, that would make Prince Elyan the rightful heir." Repsol answered.

"Unfortunately, unlike you, he does not have much support, not from his own countrymen and not from the nobility and aristocrats too. The Imperial Court is a dangerous game of politics in Zanark, if you play the game right, you can usurp the crowned heir and place yourself on the throne." Lancelot shook his head.

"What?! That's horrible!" Leontius rose up from his chair at this.

"That's sadly Zanarkian politics, even Lance isn't safe from the Imperial Court." Repsol replied sadly, covering his mouth with a free hand when he realized his slip of the tongue, which Lanceot gave a mischievous look.

"Repsol, did you actually call me by my first name instead of 'Lord Deluca' for once? In the presence of a foreign royal no less? I'm so happy I could cry. Almost."

"S-shut up!" Repsol huffed and sulked into his tea.

"Heh heh, you two have a history I see." Leontius laughed warmly.

"Oh we go quite a long way back, don't we? I could not have ask for a better partner." Lancelot gave a cat-like grin.

Repsol just muttered darkly to himself.

"It is as Repsol said though, if you win the approval of the Imperial Court, you can make yourself Emperor, completely pushing aside the royal line. It's very cut-throat, and Prince Elyan is right in the middle of the turmoil." Lancelot's smile faded though as his mind returned to the subject at hand.

"Not only did he have to see his Father murdered in front of him and almost met the same fate until we intervened, but now he has to go through this crap." Repsol snapped.

"Fortunately or unfortunately, the Imperial Court recognizes that they cannot remove Prince Elyan, but they see the potential of somehow making him their puppet, given Elyan is still incredibly young."

"How young?"

"Twelve." Lancelot answered.

"That young?! But that would be too much of a strain on a child. He's a person, not some puppet!" Leontius panicked.

"That's not the worst of it, the late Emperor wasn't exactly...well, let's just say he may or may not have illegitimate children." Repsol added.

"Hmph, good grief, I can imagine all the forbidden 'love childs' will be coming out in droves in the Upper Ring trying to claim their bid." Lancelot scoffed.

"You're telling me. Regardless though, Elyan is his only child through royal marriage, so it doesn't change the fact that Prine Elyan still has the strongest claim."

"...Wow...and I thought our politics were tough to figure out." Leontius sat back down, feeling exhausted from the lengthy discussion about Zanarkian politics.

"I apologise, we got carried away." Lancelot gave an apology.

"Oh no, I find the way your Empire works intriguing, although scary I admit. I'm not sure I could survive in such an environment."

"Oh trust me, your Highness. I would not wish that kind of environment on anyone, especially not the young Prince... What I find most intriging though is that you are the only one within the Hylandian Royal Family with such a strong resonance, as you can clearly see and hear Repsol right here, but as far as we know, very few Glenwoodians possess resonance like yours."

"Oh, you noticed it. My ancestor had resonance within her as well, although it wasn't as strong as Shepherd Sorey's at the time."

"It sounds like your resonance far exceeds even that of your ancestor's." Repsol noted.

"...Being able to see Seraphim always felt natural to me, I had been able to see Seraphim for as long as I could remember. So when I learned later in life that there were so many who couldn't see them. It made me feel ashamed in myself and sad for my ancestor, she was a devout believer in the Seraphim and of the Shepherd's existence, yet, her resonance wasn't as strong as her beliefs and ideals were, it feels a little unjust to me when I think about that. I feel like that younger self took my ability to see Seraphim for granted." Leontius looked at this hands as he confessed this truth.

"For the record, she did went on to forge the peace treaty between Rolance and Hyland, become the first ruling queen and brought what was two feuding nations and turned them into a united force." Repsol reminded.

"Yes, you're right. Even with her limitations, she did things that I could only dream of achieving in my entire lifetime. I wish I could have met her." Leontius nodded in agreement.

"Resonance works in mysterious ways it would seem, especially in Glenwood, perhaps it is because there is very little malevolence remaining here since the purging of the Lord of Calamity that more people in Glenwood are becoming sensitive to the presence of the Seraphim?" Lancelot shrugged.

"If that's true, I think that would be wonderful to see more people with resonance, then perhaps, one day, we'll see a day when Humans and Seraphim can live alongside each other." Leontius smiled.

"Lord Deluca...Don't forget we're also here for-"

"Oh right, I almost forgot. We had another reason for seeking an audience with your Father.

"Ah, I think I already know." Leontius gave a small smile before taking out the parchment that Gwen had given him and placing on the table before Repsol and Lancelot. "I believe this is what you were seeking, correct?"

"How did you know?" Repsol was impressed.

"Well, it was written in Fayrulian, since it has been such a long time since Fayrule and Glenwood even exchanged words with each other, Father and I didn't know how to read it, but we figured from the seal imprinted at the bottom right corner marked it was a royal seal. That's when Father guessed that this parchment was probably stolen and smuggled into Glenwood for someone with ill intentions. That's why he gave it back to me when you were granted an audience, he probably wanted to return it to you." Leontius theorized.

"Well, your Father is mostly right, and we appreciate that he returned the parchment to us without much fuss. He was wrong about two things though. First, the courier in question had no idea what she was carrying. The spy who stole this parchment left her in the dark, so if she was caught with it on route to destination, they would place the blame on her. Of course the plan backfired, we found the rat and interrogated the truth out of him."

"Just like that?"

"I can be very persuasive." Lancelot smiled.

"Either way, the spy also only told the courier that the client was someone of great importance to Hyland. So she obviously assumed that person was your Father."

"Ah, hence why she wanted an audience with my Father, therefore trying to break into the Cathedral that night in order to speak with me so I could deliver it to him." Leontius clicked.

"You've met this girl?" Repsol asked.

"Oh yes, she's a little rough on the edges, but she has a good heart. I'm so glad to hear that she wasn't involved in the theft."

"Rest assured, we won't be pressing any charges against her. She was only doing her job. Obviously the spy should have been a little more blunt in _who_ exactly the client was. As it seemed she gave it to the wrong person." Repsol added.

"Which only leaves two options, spies don't come cheap, so only someone with a lot of wealth could hire one. And since the spy mentioned someone of importance in Hyland, that means it has to be a noble or someone with a lot of political power who wanted this information." Lancelot guessed.

"But why? Just what is written within this parchment?" Leontius looked concerned.

"...I...we can't tell you that. It's top sec-" Repsol frowned.

"Can you keep a secret? Even one as importance as this? Whatever we tell you here must never leave this room." Lancelot warned.

"Lord Deluca!"

"I believe he can be trusted." Lancelot reassured.

"If the Imperial Court found out you've been telling secrets to an foreign nation-",

"I'll take full responsibility." Lancelot cut his Aide-De-Camp off in mid-sentence.

"Honestly you are just asking to get arrested!" Repsol cried out in frustration.

"I promise, I won't tell a soul, not even my Father." Leontius gave his word.

"...It contains plans and details of a controversial plan to use malevolence to convert it into destructive energy against Hellions." Lancelot bluntly revealed.

"...What?" Leontius was lost for words.

* * *

Back at Avalon Temple, the trio finally arrived at their destination. The Mural Room where Arthur first met his idol, Shepherd Sorey, although it was certainly an unexpected encounter that he never dreamed he would still be alive to see.

"Impressive, even after all these ages, these walls still look as if they had been carved only yesterday. The people who designed this room to be so air-tight out-done themselves." Merlin praised, noting every detail.

"Sooo, it's a bunch of pictures and words." Gwen placed her hands behind her head in a carefree fashion.

"Don't be like that Gwen, such murals like this can be a great find to people who yearn to know more about the past."

"Arthur's right. Such records are can tell a story that was probably forgotten through the passage of time, can only survive in this form." Merlin also lightly scolded.

"Okay, so what's it about? From the looks of things, it looks like a guy in a robe is offering something to that giant ball." Gwen asked in the most bluntest of terms that Arthur couldn't help but softly giggle.

"How old are you? Ten?" Merlin's eye twitched.

"Hey, I'm no scholar, you tell me what it's about." Gwen shrugged.

"Very well, allow me to explain. This is depicting the ceremony of how Shepherds prayed to one of the Greater Seraph Lords in order to strengthen their domain and power as the Shepherd." Merlin explained.

"Oh, I see, so that giant ball of light is meant to signify a Seraph Lord?" Arthur asked.

"Indeed. From the looks of it, this one looks like one of the older Seraph Lords before Lord Maotelus's time."

"Whoa...This was before Lord Maotelus's time?! Then...who was the first one that came before Lord Maotelus?" Arthur thought it was breath-taking to think of such a event being recorded on a stone wall. He noticed that Merlin had a sadden look staring at the wall. "Merlin, are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing. I was lost in my thoughts. So then, shall we go find the archive room?" Merlin shook his head.

"Merlin, out of curiosity, what does the Asgardian text here say? I did try to translate it but...I might have got it wrong." Arthur wondered.

"Curious, I didn't know you were also interested in reading Asgardian writing." Merlin spoke.

"Uncle Mikleo's been helping me to try and understand it, but to be honest, I think even he struggles with it too." Arthur answered.

"Well, it says "Under the light of the Seraph Lord, Innominat, the Shepherd is granted power of space and time."

"Lord Innominat...Hmmm...I don't think I heard that name before."

"That's because he was the previous King of Seraph Lords before Lord Maotelus was hand-chosen by Lord Innominat himself as his successor. I can assume that knowledge of Lord Innominat's existance is very rare outside this temple now."

"Wait, these Seraph Lords can switch out?" Gwen wondered.

"Well, I would not exactly say 'switching out', but older Seraph Lords can be replaced. Lord Innominat was the Seraph King with power over Time itself, it was not easy trying to find someone to take over his role as King of the Greater Seraph Lords."

"But that someone turned out to Maotelus right?" Gwen looked puzzled, "If that's the case, what happened to that Innominat guy after he passed his crown off to his successor?"

"No one knows. He disappeared very shortly afterwards. Some say that because his worshippers turned to Lord Maotelus instead, his power slowly dwindled and faded away. I personally think though that there was another reason behind why Lord Innominat chose to step down."

"Really?"

"You know that some humans can become Seraphim upon death right? More often Shepherds fall into this category than most, but what if the reverse could be said for Seraphim?" Merlin asked.

"Would that be possible? A Seraph to become Human?" Arthur wondered.

"In theory, it should be possible. Humans and Seraphim have a symbolic relationship with one another, if humans can become Seraphim, then the opposite could be true for Seraphim. Believe it or not, no matter what some Seraphim might say, there are those who are actually envious of the mortality that Humans have."

"Huh, sounds bizarre, usually it's the other way around." Gwen crossed her arms.

"It's a very complex opinion. I do know one thing though, Lord Innominat had a deep love and admiration for humans and how they lived and I think that played a part in why he chose to pass on his title to Lord Maotelus. This is just theory though, in the end, the reason for Lord Innominat's sudden disappearance remains a mystery."

"Hey, does this mean that the four Greater Seraph Lords in Fayrule also have a king as well?" Gwen asked.

"No, Lord Maotelus rules over those four as well. So I guess you could say Lord Maotelus reigns over both Glenwood and Fayrule Seraphim."

"Why didn't any of the scriptures in Fayrule mention him then? I mean, I do remember this Innominat guy's name showing up in a few of them." Gwen wondered.

"It's very likely that Lord Maotelus was not very popular with the Fayrulian Seraph Lords, last I checked, they were very fond of Lord Innominat, so they probably felt Lord Maotelus was a pretender and didn't respect him in the same manner as Lord Innominat."

"Ouch. I guess even Seraphim have got their own share of politics too huh? Seems to be a following trend no matter where you go." Gwen cringed.

"So they didn't even mention there was a new Seraph King to their followers in Fayrule because they didn't like the new one?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"Even Seraphim can be picky about their Seraph Kings. But yes, they probably did that out of spite."

"Sounds a bit childish." Arthur sweat dropped.

"Yeeaaah, you'd be surprised who gets picked as our Seraph Lords." Merlin laughed nervously. "Anyway, we need to get to that Archive Room." Merlin returned to their main goal at hand.

"Okay, it shouldn't be too hard. I think..." Arthur nodded and looked around the room briefly.

"Arthur, this is my temple, remember? I should know this place by heart by now." Merlin laughed.

He then walked over to the northern wall with another mural, different to the other one on the western wall. The mural showed what looked like an artist's depiction of a Shepherd raising their sword skyward towards what was meant to be the sun. He slotted the gem into were the Shepherd's hand was on the mural, it went inside without much force needed.

The room suddenly shook, causing them to almost lose their balance but managed to regain it without falling face first to the floor. The wall slowly slide sideways, with a few specks of dust falling from the celling as it did, revealing at looked like a new passageway, a couple of wall lights created through seraphic artes lit up as Merlin took the first steps inside after the wall finished moving.

"Well? You two coming?"

Once they were finally broken out of their stupor, they followed Merlin through the passageway.

When they reached the other side, it proved to be quite a sight to behold.

"Look at all these relics! I've never seen so many in one place before!" Arthur gushed happily like the ruin-fanatic that he was.

"I gotta say, this is quite a collection. If I didn't know you were a nerd yourself, I'd say you have an unhealthy obsession." Gwen whistled.

"Welcome to the Archive Room. This is where all our most ancient and sacred of relics and records are kept." Merlin welcomed them.

"This room is amazing, Merlin. So your Armatus is here somewhere, right? Do you know where it is?" Arthur looked around.

"It shouldn't take too long to find it. Why not look around while I go get it." Merlin reassured.

"...Would that be okay?"

"I can tell from that look in your eyes, and who am I to deny you, given your love for knowledge?" Merlin narrowed his eyes playfully. "Just handle them with care though. While they are well-preserved, they are still delicate."

"Thank you, I'll be sure to be gentle with the relics." Arthur thanked cheerfully.

As Merlin proceeded to try looking for his Armatus through the treasure trove of what was literally thousands of years of history, Arthur and Gwen looked at some of the relics. Gwen wasn't really interested, but she wasn't going to lie, it was cute to see Arthur's eyes light up so brightly over something he truly cared about.

"This is a seraphic flute, made through Seraphic artes, it was said that by playing music, they could soothe the anger of Seraphim during times that they thought were caused by Seraphim. Like droughts, storms, and et cetera." Arthur explained.

"Oh yeah, some folks in Fayrule still believe that. I think one of the villages have a harp that given to them by an ancient Wind Seraph, I think." Gwen recalled.

Arthur gently placed the flute back down and look through tablets recorded in ancient Asgardian, various simple treasures like goblets and jewellery, what got Arthur's though was...

"Hey, isn't this a Shepherd's robe?" Arthur asked.

"It kinda looked like the one that Sorey guy has doesn't it?" Gwen nodded.

"Almost, the pattern on it is different and the cloth feels a bit more...fluffy? No, maybe it's silk? I can't tell." Arthur wondered, gently touching the fabric to try guess the material, but it was unlike any cotton or silk he was familiar with, it was almost like it was it's own kind of material. He also noticed that the designs on the robe were more flowing and elegant, curved at certain parts with angelic looking wings designs on the back of the robe. Other than that, almost identical to Sorey's Shepherd robe.

"Hey look, it comes with it's own glove too." Gwen spotted a Shepherd's glove right next to the robe. It lacked the beads and feathers, but the Shepherd emblem was there and had the same rim colours. It did, however, have what looked like a crystal attached to the wrist end of the glove.

"Huh, I wonder what kind of crystal this is." Arthur looked curiously.

"Aha, found it! How I've missed you old friend!" Merlin proudly claimed out loud, making Gwen and Arthur turn around to face Merlin.

He swiftly weaved about the various relics that were all over the room with what looked like a big grimoire with elegant patterns and designs, all in Asgardian lettering. It looked almost a little too big for Merlin, but then again, this was probably when Merlin still had his original body.

"A book? **That** was your Armatus?" Gwen snickered.

"Hey, I'll have you know that this Armatus is one of the only few forged by the hand of Asgard's finest weaponsmith in Seraphic weapons! You should never judge things on appearances alone." Merlin huffed as he defended his Armatus.

"It's not what I imagined it would look like, but at least you found it." Arthur smiled sheepishly.

Merlin sighed. "You kids have so little imagination nowadays. Not everything has to look like a giant sword."

"Sorry." Arthur chuckled.

"Anyway, I've noticed that you've found the Shepherd robe and glove that was left here." Merlin smirked as he glanced at what Arthur and Gwen were looking at previously.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting to see something like this here, why do you have it though, Merlin?" Arthur questioned.

"That's a good question." Gwen was also curious to hear the reply from the Light Half-Seraph.

"It actually belonged to my previous Shepherd, but when he become a Seraph, he passed his robe and glove to me so I could hand them over to his successor." Merlin answered.

He went over to pick up the robe and glove from the mannequin that was used to hang them. "I had planned to give these to you when we got here, Arthur. So I'm pleased that I don't have to try explaining this."

"You're giving them to me? But why? Weren't they special to you since they belonged to your previous Shepherd?" Arthur gasped.

"All the more reason why you should wear them. I've chosen you, remember? And like I said, he wanted me to pass them to his successor. So relax, he certainly won't mind, in fact, he'd probably be proud of you wearing them." Merlin shook his head

"Well, I guess that's true, alright, I'll put them on. Not sure if they'll look out of place on me or not." Arthur scratched his cheek. After some hesitation, he decided to put the Shepherd robe and glove on, they fitted just fine on him. "How do I look? I don't look stupid right?"

"Nah, you don't look that half-bad in them, actually. Not exactly right out of the scriptures, but you look the part anyway." Gwen bluntly gave her honest response.

"Geez, thanks Gwen." Arthur sighed in defeat.

"You're not helping his self-esteem like this." Merlin face palmed.

"It's okay Merlin, she was just being honest. It feels little weird though, I never thought I'd be wearing anything like this."

"Better get used to it, you'll be living with the title of Shepherd for the rest of your life, so you might as well look like one." Merlin teased with a soft smile.

"Hmmm, something's missing though. Oh, I know! Hold that thought." Gwen gave a careful look before something clicked in her mind and started going through her stuff.

Arthur and Merlin looked confused but waited to see what Gwen had in mind. Gwen found what she was looking for and placed it over Arthur's forehead, it was a headband of Fayrulian design, it had a jade bead with three feathers attached to it on the side of the headband.

"There we go! I had a gut feeling that headband would look good on you. Now you look like a bone-fide Shepherd."

"Where did you get that?" Merlin had an inquisitive look.

"It was something I was given back in Fayrule while traveling here. There was this mountain village on the borders that connect Fayrule to Glenwood, I was doing a delivery there and they gave me this as an bonus reward. It really doesn't suit me though so I was never going to wear it, but I couldn't turn down their offer after they gave it to me. On the other hand though, headbands suit you, Arthur." Gwen answered.

"Thank you, Gwen. It's really nice, but are you okay with that? Your client gave this to you after all."

"I'm totally fine with it. It looks better on you anyway. Besides, it kinda loses it's purpose if it doesn't get worn." Gwen nodded.

"I never would have pictured you as someone who had an eye for fashion." Merlin poked.

"What are you implying?" Gwen looked annoyed.

"Never mind." Merlin shook his head hopelessly.

"So, now that we have the Armatus, we can make the pact official now, right?" Arthur asked.

"That's correct. This is your last chance to turn back now if you don't want to go through with this." Merlin nodded.

Arthur shook his head. "No, I'm not going to run away." Arthur gave his final answer.

"If Arthur's in for the long haul, then I am too." Gwen also replied.

"...Very well then. Give me your hand, Arthur, I'll commence the rite." Merlin gave a small smile and offered his hand out to Arthur.

"Okay, I'm...not going to get bed-ridden am I? I really don't go through that again." Arthur asked.

"That's the thing you're worried about most?! Your body already adjusted to having a Seraphic presence within it when I made you my host. Don't worry, that's a one time process." Merlin looked stupefied.

"You wouldn't be saying that if it was the reverse. That process was really painful you know." Arthur pouted as he gave a hand out for Merlin to grab.

"I'm sorry, that probably sounded harsh. I wished that had been more ceremonious instead of just forcing your body into becoming my vessel without permission." Merlin apologised.

"It's in the past now. So, what do I need to do...or say...? I think there's an oath involved right?" Arthur shook his head.

"You're familiar with it?" Merlin asked curiously.

"I remember reading about it in the Celestial Record." Arthur nodded.

"Well, that saves us a lot of time. Let's begin then. _To become my sword is to serve as a vessel for me to dwell in and-"_

"Didn't you already do that part?" Arthur smirked.

"Arthur, please don't interrupt." Merlin gave a disproving look.

"Sorry, I'll stop." Arthur gave a apologetic smile and allowed Merlin to continue.

" _-and to assume the Shepherd's burden. Blessed with the power of purification and abilities beyond human ken. Cursed to be scorned by others and wrought with despair. To protect this land from the hellions means a constant stream of agonizing decisions. I ask of thee, thou art prepared to take on thy task?"_

"Yes, I offer myself as your vessel and shall bear your burden as your Shepherd. I pray for the power to purify and to become sword and shield to those who cannot protect themselves from the terrifying power that is the Malevolence, to protect those dearest to me." Arthur pledged.

Taking a hold of Arthur's hand, now garbed with the Shepherd's glove, he felt a surge of power from Merlin's hand and flowed through Arthur's veins, it felt hot and uncomfortable, but he preserved, a shining mark appeared above him and swiftly flew downwards throughout his entire body, engulfed by the element of light til it faded away.

"Annnd done. You're officially my Shepherd now. Congratulations are in order." Merlin proudly claimed, letting go of Arthur's arm.

"Well, that wasn't so bad. I was kinda expecting it to feel worse." Arthur admitted.

"Nice job hanging in there. So I guess it's my turn now, it isn't going to be weird right?" Gwen gave a thumbs up to Arthur before turning to Merlin.

"The pact for becoming a Sub-Lord or Squire is less stressful on the body than the Shepherd one, if anything you lucked out." Merlin replied.

"Eh?! You mean she doesn't have to worry about going through the same things as I did?"

"Pretty much. Sorry Arthur..." Merlin laughed sheepishly.

"..."

"I'll remember your sacrifice." Gwen lightly teased.

"Not funny." Arthur gave a hurt look.

"If it helps, you were comatose for a majority of that entire process. So you wouldn't have felt all the pain." Merlin patted Arthur's back.

"I know, oh well, at least Gwen doesn't have to go through it as well. I should be grateful for that." Arthur sighed.

"Okay, let's do you now, Gwen. Don't worry, this oath is more easier to deal with." Merlin reassured.

Gwen still looked doubtful but she gave a hand to Merlin which he took a gentle hold of. "Miss Gwen, do you agree to uphold the sacred laws of the Seraphim and also share in Shepherd's burden, to fight and stand beside him through peace and war, do you accept the pact of Squire to the Shepherd?"

"...Do I just say yes?" Gwen tilted her head.

"...Yeah, that works. You could have put it a bit more eloquently." Merlin rolled his eyes.

"Then yes, I accept the pact." Gwen replied.

Merlin repeated the same process that he did for Arthur and then released his hold on Gwen's hand. "Alright, that's done. You are now Arthur's Squire."

"Alright! I don't feel any different though, do I look different?" Gwen cheered before trying to look to see if any changes had happened.

"Nah, you're still all you." Arthur smiled.

"It's more of an inward change, but now you'll be able to purify more effectively and armatize like Arthur. Oh, that's right, this also means I can create benevolence bullets for you. It still means I have to absorb some of your benevolence from your body, but at least you'll get more out of them then you would through raw benevolence alone. And it's a much safer method."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you could do that. Sounds handy, I'll be holding you to that." Gwen recalled.

"Where do we go from here though?" Arthur asked the snow-haired Half-Seraph.

"Well-"

"Arthur! Are you here?!"

"Uncle Mikleo?!" Arthur screeched.

"Wow, that Uncle of yours doesn't know when to quit." Gwen was amused.

"Gwen! This is serious! If he catches me, he'll never let me go anywhere or let me out of his sight ever again! I might as well be dead!" Arthur cried out.

"Oh come now, that's an **exaggeration**. However, I do see your point, he is very protective of you, to the point where it's a little unhealthy. Hold on, I think there might be something here." Merlin rolled his eyes at Arthur's over imagination. He ran over to a corner of relics in one side of the room and started shifting them around til he found what he was looking for.

"Here, this will help us make a speedy exit." Merlin found a crystalline looking teardrop. "It's called a "Echo Drop", it's a crystalline fragment made from rare minerals found near where the Earthpulse that runs across this world and responsible for the world's natural balance. With a bit of Seraphic artes, it can be used to transfer us to anywhere in the world, by literally riding the Earthpulse itself." Merlin explained.

"It can do that...?" Arthur looked impressed.

"Now that's what I call fast traveling." Gwen added.

"Yes, although, due to how hard it is to get the said minerals found at the Earthpulse, they are very rare and can only be used once a day. Since it needs that day to recharge the lost energy that draws it from the Earthpulse itself. So we'll only have one shot at this. Think of a place to go."

"Ahhh...I don't know anywhere in Glenwood, save for Ladylake but we can't go back there." Gwen confessed.

"Only one of us needs to think of the location. The only places that the Echo Drop can't take us are places protected by Seraph Lords and any areas that are safe-guarded by Advanced Seraphic Artes. So we couldn't use this to get to Seraph Lord Shrines or where Mordred's soul fragments are even if we did know where they were."

"Um...How about Marlind? That's in Glenwood and I've been there before." Arthur suggested.

"It's as good as place as anywhere, let's do this. Everyone place a hand on the Echo Drop and you call out the location Arthur." Merlin nodded.

Arthur and Gwen did as they were instructed and placed a hand over where Merlin's hand holding the Echo Drop. "Marlind!" Arthur called out the location and saw a bright blue light shine forth from the Echo Drop.

Just as Arthur saw a familiar group of faces run into the room, the Echo Drop worked its magic and whisked them away to Marlind.

'I'm sorry Uncle Mikleo, but...this is my path to take now.'

* * *

Whew, finally! Sorry if it seemed a little rushed at the end there. I originally was going to add a boss fight here, but in the end I thought that it would feel forced so I decided to remove it and rewrite nearly almost all the parts with Avalon Temple. XD

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the story so far. Future chapters might take some time, since I've recently gotten back into the KH mood and started to work on a KH fan fic called 'Patchwork Heart'.

I plan to try working on both stories at the same time, but as of right now, Patchwork Heart might take priority (due to said mood =P)

But rest assure that this story will not be abandoned, but it could be some time before the next chapter is ready. XD

If you are a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series, please go and check out my KH one, if you are interested, if not, don't worry about it. Just putting it out there. =3

Anyways, that's all from me. Look forward to Chapter 8! Until next time, happy reading everyone! Moogle Empress out!

Moogle: Kupo!


	9. Chapter 8: The Successor

**Chapter 8 : The Successor**

* * *

"Well, that's something I hadn't seen in years, an Echo Drop. Didn't know they still worked after all this time." Edna stated.

Sorey and the others had just barely missed Arthur along with Merlin and the girl known as Gwen. They had been so close to catching up with them and learning why Arthur left the way he did.

He had a feeling that Mikleo was probably all over the place with his nerves right now, probably confused with what he should do next. His silence was all they had to know to understand that.

"You might want to go talk to Mikleo over there." Zaveid signalled to Sorey.

"Yeah, I know." Sorey nodded.

"Mother Henleo needs a talk down, if anyone can do that, it would be you." Edna twirled her umbrella in her hands as she spoke.

"Edna, please go easy on him." Lailah gently scolded.

Sorey approached Mikleo and placed a reassuring hand over his shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

Mikleo sighed. "Do you want me to lie or be honest?"

"Feeling that bad huh? I know I'm probably the worst person to be telling you this, since I've been absent this whole time, but I think Arthur will do okay, even if we're not with him." Sorey started.

"...I know. I guess, I just refused to accept it this whole time, even though deep down I knew that one day, I would need to let him go to live his own life, like how Gramps did the same for you. Even though he calls me by Uncle, I always considered Arthur more than that, he became like a son to me in a way. I wonder if he feels the same?"

"You really need to ask yourself that? Of course he does. He should have heard how he gushed about you when I first met him in this place, in fact I think he talked about you the most out of everyone. He really does love you. Even I can see that." Sorey grinned.

"...Really? He went into that much detail about me?" Mikleo looked surprised at this.

"Yeah, when Arthur was telling me about everything that happened while I was sleeping, he talked about you the most. I think you guys did a great job raising Arthur, he'll be a great Shepherd, I just know it." Sorey nodded.

It was Mikleo's turn to grin. "Well, considering he managed to survive Edna's 'training', he should be able to handle anything that gets thrown his way."

"What was that Meebo? I dare you to repeat those words." Edna's hearing picked up on that and gave Mikleo a glare that embodies death itself, if looks could kill that is.

"Sorey. thank you. I loathe to admit this, but maybe Edna and Zaveid were right, maybe it's time to let him find his own path to follow, even if I'm not there to guide him anymore."

"That's the spirit." Sorey encouraged.

"However," Mikleo poked Sorey's chest. "If we so happen to bump into him by pure chance, don't think for a second I won't waste that opportunity to check up on him. And so help me if that Light Seraph pulls another deus ex machina like he did just now, or if he lets anything happen to Arthur, anything at all, fighting the new Lord of Calamity will be the _least_ of his worries."

"..."

"Wow, that's dark." Zaveid sweat dropped.

Edna sighed. "He was so close too reaching a new level of maturity too."

"Well...it's a start at least." Lailah tried to think positive, although she was a little worried for her old teacher if Mikleo did carry out that threat.

"Okay, maybe that's going a **bit** overboard, Mikleo." Sorey laughed sheepishly. "Now that I think about it. What am I going to tell Lord Maotelus? He asked me to go find Merlin, but we have no idea just where they could be now. What was that small thing they used to teleport away with anyway?"

"That was an Echo Drop, they're very rare, but incredibly useful. It can allow one to safely travel through the river of the Earthpulse itself, transferring its user to anywhere in the world within minutes." Lailah explained.

"The Earthpulse...? Didn't Gramps mention that at one point to us?" Sorey recalled.

"Yeah, although he didn't go into much detail about it." Mikleo answered.

"The Earthpulse is what stops our world from literally falling into chaos." Edna explained in a matter of factly tone.

"What she means is that the Earthpulse acts like a balancing scale between all the various elements that make up our world. I'm talking about the main four, Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. The other four, Light, Dark, Plant and Thunder are secondary but just as bound and important to the Earthpulse as the main four are." Zaveid added.

"If the Earthpulse was to go out of balance, say from a large influx of Malevolence, it can cause natural disasters to occur and other anomalies, like diseases, earthquakes, tornados, never-ending thunderstorms and rain, very much things that we have seen in our journey back when Heldalf was still the current Lord of Calamity." Lailah continued.

"So that's what caused all the disasters during the Age of Chaos. If nothing bad has happened since Sorey became Lord Maotelus's vessel, does that mean the Earthpulse is back to normal?"

"Yes, it should be." Lailah nodded.

"For how long though? If I was a Lord of Calamity, the first thing I would do is shift the balance again." Edna dampened the positive thought.

"What do you think Sorey?" Mikleo asked, but when they got no answer, Mikleo turned around to see what Sorey was doing. "Sorey?"

"Aw man, this room is amazing! I've never seen so many old records and relics from the Asgardian Era in one place before! There's even stuff pre-dating the Asgard Era! Mikleo! You've got to see this!" Sorey was starry-eyed as he was in awe of the sight of the room they were in, now that it has sunk in.

"It took him this long to realize we were in the Archive Room?" Edna asked in a deadpan tone.

Mikleo couldn't help but give a hopeless smile. "Some things never change at all."

* * *

Sorey and Mikleo carefully went through the various ancient texts, records and old relics from bygone eras in hopes of finding anything that could prove useful to them about either Mordred or about where these soul fragments of his could be hidden.

Lailah, Edna and Zaveid were also helping, although they weren't being as slow as Sorey and Mikleo was with every peice they found. It was no surprise really, Sorey and Mikleo had always been the 'nerds' of the group, so this place was probably heaven on earth for them.

"Got to say, this is a pretty big collection of ancient stuff, you've even got stuff back from pre-Asgard here. I'm surprised this room hasn't been picked clean by looters." Zaveid whistled.

"Master Merlin was a firm believer of preserving the true history of our world. So he designed this room to be hidden from any thieves who would defile the temple and steal the relics. I remember that any records and Eartern Historia that was created during the Asgard Era were being stored here too for safe-keeping." Lailah told the Wind Seraph.

"Huh, that's some foresight."

"So in other words, he was a hoarder." Edna bluntly stated.

"Well...hording is a bit strong of a word, Edna..." Laliah laughed sheepishly.

Meanwhile on Sorey and Mikleo's side.

"I wish I could translate a lot of these old scriptures, but a majority of the old records are written or carved in an older form of Seraphic lettering, pre-dating the Asgard Era's language, the tablets and scrolls must have been what they used to record events before Earthern Historia was invented." Mikleo sighed in defeat, although he could translate Asgardian language into today's language, his knowledge was limited, and it would probably take another thousand years to even learn a new hundred words in Ancient Asgardian. However, the lettering used in these scrolls and stone tablets were from an age pre-dating the Asgard Era.

"Huh...What's this?" Sorey picked up what looked like an old ragged peice of fabric.

"Oh, that's must have been a banner from the time when Lord Innominat was the Seraph King." Lailah answered.

"Lord Innominat? Oh yeah, Astorius's throne also had the same emblem of that guy in one of the rooms." Sorey recalled.

"Indeed. I never knew the Seraph in person, I had not been born as Seraph when he was in power. Master Merlin and Lord Maotelus knew him very well though."

"So what was he like?" Sorey smiled.

"Well...let me think. According to Master Merlin, he said that Lord Innominat was a very kind and pure-hearted king who only wanted the best for both Seraphim and Humans, he had been the one to first create the idea of the 'Shepherd'."

"Ah, so that's where the Legend of the Shepherd first originated from." Mikleo clicked.

"He saw the Shepherd as a bridge between the two races that would help foster an age of co-existence, which as you know was the Era of Asgard." Lailah nodded.

"This was a pretty long time ago, but I think I've heard that Lord Innominat was popular with the Seraph Lords of Fayrule, but not in Glenwood." Zaveid recalled a past conversation with someone that he couldn't remember, probably a random Seraph or something.

"Really? Why didn't they like him?" Sorey frowned, Lord Innominat seemed like a pretty nice guy, why didn't the Glenwood Seraph Lords like him?

"These were different Lords at the time, mind you, not the ones that are in charge now." Zaveid corrected.

"So chances are they were bigoted jerks." Edna bluntly added.

"I do know not myself, from what Master Merlin had told me, that they were at odds with Lord Innominat over humans. Lord Innominat was said to have been very fond of humans and the Seraph Lords might have seen that as a weakness."

"So basically, bigoted jerks." Edna repeated.

"Lord Innominat named Lord Maotelus as his Successor should anything happen to the Seraph King. A few months later, Lord Innominat just vanished, no one knew what happened to him. However, since Lord Maotelus was named his Successor by him, he was made the next Seraph King, and Lord Innominat's memory eventually faded from everyone, except for Master Merlin, Lord Maotelus and certain other Seraphim." Lailah finished.

"So that explains how Maotelus came into power then. Wonder why Innominat chose him over any other Seraph?"

"Hmmm...I can't say. Master Merlin never said anything about it. He did say though that Fayrule's Four Seraph Lords didn't favour Lord Maotelus, they felt that he betrayed Lord Innominat, but both Master Merlin and I do not think that it's true. Either way, it caused the isolation of Fayrule, which as you know have never reopened their borders again until very recently."

"Lord Maotelus didn't come across as someone who would betray. I think they must have been mistaken." Sorey didn't believe that was true.

"Either that or they were fighting with the Four Seraph Lords of Glenwood and Maotelus didn't do enough to quell the in-fighting." Zaveid shrugged.

"I guess we will never truly know. Maybe they have new Seraph Lords in Fayrule now, so with luck, we'll be able to start over again." Lailah held her hands together.

"I'd like think that too. It's been six thousand years since the fall of the Asgard Era, right? I'm sure they're willing to work with the Seraph Lords of Glenwood now." Sorey nodded.

"...Sorey, I feel like I should mention something very important. Something that I realized since you had returned. In a way, Mikleo should hear about this too. Don't worry, this doesn't go against my oath, but...I did keep it a secret since I didn't want to hurt the both of you. Even Master Merlin saw it but didn't say anything either." Lailah sighed deeply before speaking.

"Hm?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"You see, Sorey-" As Lailah was about to confess to something, a bright light flashed into the room, following by what liked a chibi human-like with, long platinum blonde hair, big golden eyes, white Seraphic robes and circlet with a light symbol set at the centre of the being's circlet, falling unceremonious to the hard stone floor with a thud after coming out of the said flash of light. "Ow. I'm never going get used to surfing the Earthpulse no matter how many times I use it." He then looked up to find five people staring at him.

"Sorry about the sudden entrance, the Earthpulse's been acting a little wacky recently. Uhh...So...Hi."

"...Lailah, what the hell is this?" Mikleo pointed at the small looking sprite.

"That's a Mana Sprite, isn't it?" Zaveid questioned.

"Indeed. No doubt about it, I haven't seen one of them in millennia. Aren't they so cute?" Lailah nodded.

"A Mana Sprite?" Sorey repeated.

"That's what I am! We're kinda like the Normins for Seraphim, but there's only eight of us and one for each element, and we're only for the exclusive use for the Seraph Lord of our element." The sprite proudly proclaimed, puffing his chest out lightly.

"...Normins are cuter..." Edna muttered quietly to herself, using her umbrella to hide her face.

"So essentially, your sole purpose is to be a servant to the Seraph Lord that you belong to?" Mikleo tried to summarize.

"We're also Messengers that go between the Seraph Lords, but you seem to have the right idea." The Sprite nodded. "It's considered a crime among Seraphim to try and use a Seraph Lord's Mana Sprite without permission from the Seraph Lord, so don't even try to think about using me like a Normin."

"I wasn't thinking that." Mikleo scowled.

"Why is a Mana Sprite here then? Shouldn't you be your Seraph Lord?"

"Oh, that's right! Let me introduce myself, my name is Rem. I'm the Mana Sprite that is devoted to the current Seraph Lord of Light, Lady Luxeria. She sent me to find a Shepherd. Are you a Shepherd, sir? Please, we really need your help, please help us!"

"Whoa whoa, start from the beginning, what's going on? You said that this Lady Luxeria is the Seraph Lord of Light, that means she's from Fayrule right?" Mikleo attempted to calm down the Mana Sprite.

"Why would a Seraph Lord of Fayrule send her Mana Sprite all the way out to Glenwood? Must be pretty important if they're willing to forget what happened in the past." Zaveid questioned.

"Fayrule...Fayrule's in big trouble! You see...it's been going on for a few decades now, there's an unknown source of malevolence seeping into Fayrule's land and it's causing the leylines that connects to the Earthpulse to go out of control. Natural Disasters, incurable diseases, what's worse, there's even been sightings of Primals showing up!" Rem explained.

"Wait, did you say Primals?!" Lailah gasped.

"I'm going to regret asking this, what's a Primal?" Mikleo asked.

"They're the Earthpulse's natural defence system, guess you could say they're living elemental weapons born from the Earthpulse to be more accurate." Zaveid started.

"Basically, they make even a Dragon look like a tiny lizard in power and comparison." Edna bluntly stated in her own words.

"It's like they say, Primals are rarely summoned from the Earthpulse unless it feels seriously threatened. They are eight of them, one for each element just like the Seraph Lords, however, unlike the Seraphim, they are raw power, they do not have a will of their own, they only obey the will of the Earthpulse from whence they were born from." Lailah explained in finer detail.

"You said they were only summoned if the Earthpulse is threatened enough to take action?"

"People have forgotten, but the Earthpulse is the lifeblood of this world, billions of souls, both Seraphim and human-alike, flow in that river, it is there where the cycle of rebirth begins and ends." Rem nodded.

"Whoa...so the Earthpulse is basically a living river of life." Sorey was awed by this fact.

"So there is no heaven? That's...a little disappointing." Mikleo guessed.

"That's not true. It's where all souls are born and where they return when it's their time to come back, so in a way, it's like reuniting with people that you lost, and it's pure tranquillity and peace, so I guess you could call that heaven." Rem argued.

"What if they are already reborn?" Mikleo countered.

"Well...okay, you got me there. However, not all souls get reborn instantly, there's a period of time that a soul needs to be cleansed of their lives before they can return to the world to begin their new life." Rem pouted, but then added.

"That explains why anyone who gets reborn doesn't remember their life before." Sorey realized.

"Exactly, I know it's sounds morbid, but think of it as a necessary evil for some people." Rem told them.

"True...there's Heldalf, I bet he would rather forget everything that happened and start anew." Sorey agreed with that, after all, while he could never forgive Heldalf for the things he committed, he was a victim as well and suffered greatly for it. He was pretty sure Heldalf would probably be happier that he would one day be reborn again as a new person, to start with a clean slate.

"Ya can't argue there. There's just some things you'd wish you can forget." Zaveid tipped Dezel's old hat.

"Let's get back to topic people, this is a pretty serious crisis. If the Earthpulse felt threatened enough to call it's Primals to the surface, that means some idiot is doing something stupid to cause it. If we don't stop whatever this idiot is doing, this entire world is going to be destroyed before Mordred can do it." Edna reeled them back in with the main topic.

"Mordred?" Rem looked confused before crying in horror. "You mean the Lord of Calamity, Mordred?! Oh no! You mean he's broken free?!"

"Well done, Edna. You've placed the Mana Sprite into pure shock.

"Calm down, don't worry, Mordred hasn't escape Master Merlin's seal yet. If he had, Master Merlin would have had his original body back." Lailah reassured.

"What happened was that our dear Maotelus did a very moronic thing and released one of Mordred's soul fragments into the open. Chances are he's probably possessing someone's body for the time being." Edna rolled her eyes.

"Huh? Why would Lord Maotelus do that? He was suppose to be guarding it for eternity." Rem tilted her head.

"Wow, the Seraph Lords of Fayrule really were left in the dark of what's been happening in Glenwood." Zaveid whistled.

"It's...a little complicated, Rem." Sorey laughed nervously. "Anyway, do you know why this is happening to Fayrule? The whole continent is suppose to be one giant pureland, isn't it?" Sorey changed the subject slightly.

"Uh huh," Rem nodded. "We don't know, even Lady Luxeria is trying her best to find the source of the rising malevolence. She fears that this malevolence is being generated on purpose by someone, until recently, the effects it's been having on Fayrule had been small isolated incidents. Now, it's really gotten out of control, for the past forty years, Fayrule had gone from the peace it had for countless millennia into an era of Chaos."

"So now Fayrule is suffering an era of Chaos of their own. Just like Glenwood." Lailah clasped her hands tightly.

"The people of Fayrule, both Seraphim and Humans are frightened, the Seraph Lords are doing everything in their power to quell the malevolence, but they won't be able to hold it back forever, even they have their limits."

"That's why Lady Luxeria tasked me to find a Shepherd from Glenwood. Since we never suffered anything like this before, we never had a need for Shepherds since the Era of Asgard."

"Fayrule don't have Shepherds of their own?" Sorey looked surprised by this.

"Of course not, the Seraphim's presence in Fayrule is far stronger there than it is in Glenwood, which means there's no room for Malevolence to naturally generate if the Seraphim have a stronger hold over the land. So there's no need for Shepherds." Edna stated as if it was an obvious thing.

"So the only way Malevolence could be generated in such a place if it was done artificially and in large quantities too." Zaveid added.

"Surely there's some mention of their existence or Asgardian ruins to show they did exist."

"Oh yes, the Legend of the Shepherd does exist in Fayrule. It is how your friends said it though, until now, Fayrule didn't need a Shepherd since we never had need of one, at least not since the end of the Asgard Era."

"But now you need one?" Mikleo raised an eyebrow.

"I know. Lady Luxeria and the other three Seraph Lords of Fayrule is aware of the past grudge between the former Eight Seraph Lords of Fayrule and Glenwood that prevailed even after the fall of the Era of Asgard. The Shepherd though is a neutral party that can go between such things. We need a Shepherd more than ever now. Please...help us." Rem begged Sorey, bowing respectfully.

"...You had me at the 'are you a Shepherd' part." Sorey softly smiled and petted the small Mana Sprite's head.

"Really...? Then...you'll help us?" Rem asked with a look of renewed hope.

"Sorey, you sure about this? You've just come out of being in a deep sleep and you want to go back to being a Shepherd?" Mikleo asked.

"I can't just stand by and let this continue to happen to Fayrule, what kind of Shepherd I'd be if I helped to purify Glenwood but not Fayrule?"

"Heh, should have known, given who I am talking to." Mikleo teased with a mischievous smirk.

"I agree with Sorey. Fayrule deserves a Shepherd just as much Glenwood does. Besides, the fact that someone is generating this much malevolence through artifical means at such a fast pace concerns me, especially if it invoked the Primals to be summoned to the surface." Lailah chose to stand by Sorey's decision.

"...Do we have to? Fighting Lord of Calamities is one thing, but fighting a Primal? Are you just _asking_ to die?" Edna complained.

"Edna..."

"Fine, we'll go save Fayrule from it's own stupid mistakes. If we end up coming across a Primal though, you're on your own." Edna finally caved in, in her own 'Edna' style way. Of course she wouldn't actually ditch them if they did come across a Primal, but she strongly would advise to not try and fight one, that's just suicidal.

"Who knows? Maybe we'll bump heads with Arthur too, since I'm sure their journey will end up taking them there too." Zaveid simply replied.

"Lord Shepherd, you're the greatest ever! Thank you so much!" Rem beamed for joy. "We can take the old road through Myst Forest that exists north of Elysia's borders, that's the only place that physically connects the two continents by land."

"Myst Forest? That's where..." Mikleo could never forget that place since that was where he found Arthur. That feels so long ago now.

"That's where you picked up Arthur, right Mik-boy?" Zaveid spoke aloud the thoughts that the Water Seraph had been thinking about. He must have been thinking on the same lines too.

"You found Arthur in Myst Forest, Mikleo?" Sorey raised an eyebrow at this, curious of this little bit of information.

"I'll explain on the way there, Sorey, but yeah, I found Arthur within the area. So maybe Arthur originally came from Fayrule?" Mikleo wondered.

"It's hard to say, so long as that protective seal over him remains, we'll never know anything about Arthur's origins." Lailah shook her head.

"Does it even matter? Arthur is Arthur, that will never change." Mikleo crossed his arms.

Lailah didn't say anything, but had an understanding motherly smile.

"Uhhh...Who's Arthur? Is he another Shepherd?" Rem asked.

"Yup, who knows? Maybe we'll see him on the way there." Sorey beamed.

* * *

Meanwhile in an old meeting hall, within the old halls of the Astorius Shrine that survived the aftermath of Shepherd Sorey's fight with Heldalf. Lord Maotelus took on his human form, which he took the appearance of a middle-aged man with a short beard, white and gold seraphic robes that had long sleeves that fell right down to the ground and made his body seem formless. He had a elegantly rune carved circlet around his head with the symbol of eight elements carved at the centre of the circlet.

"Maotelus, what were you thinking?! I understand your need to find a Successor as the Seraph King of the Eight Seraph Lords, but this is going too far!" A male Seraph, who appeared the same age as the late Lord Zenrus, his short length hair and beard a mixture of red and white. His crimson red eyes looked alive despite his appearance in age.

He wore red Seraphic robes with silver linings and fire-aspect patterns sown into the fabric.

"I am aware of that, Lord Musiphe. I will accept the consequences that will come from this choice. However, you must understand that I cannot remain as the Seraph King any longer, I am no longer worthy of this title. I had put this world in great danger by succumbing to Malevolence, had I remained as a Hellion, no living thing would have survive. The risk is too great to allow this to happen a second time." Maotelus shook his head.

"I understand that, but the problem I have is that you decided this without even consulting your Successor about this. What's worse, you started the boy's transformation from human to Seraph without even telling him, even after he awakened." Musiphe argued.

"While I do not agree with what Maotelus did, I have to agree with him on his choice for a Successor though. Shepherd Sorey has proven was able to overcome his trials and his heart remained pure and strong. Mordred's proxy or not, that Lord of Calamity, Heldalf could have succeeded if the boy had been weak. Thankfully, that never came to pass." Lady Eumacia was a beautiful mocha-skinned Seraph with flaxen hair tied up in what looked like rings that fell over her shoulders. Her eyes a vivid topaz shade and wore a golden toga with brown sandals, giving her an exotic look.

Next to her was Lady Hyanoa, a Seraph woman of equal beauty, but had a more elegant look. Her emerald hair flowed like a river down to her waist with luminous green eyes complimenting her shade of hair. Her green Seraphic robes were long and flowing, with wind-aspected patterns woven within the fabric. She had what looked like a tribal crown with two wings attached to the sides resting on top of her head.

"Amenoch, is there something troubling you?" Hyanoa turned to the Seraph Lord of Water who seemed deep in thought about something.

True to his element, he had blue and white seraphic robes with water-aspected patterns decorating it. He had long light blue hair that had to be tied into a loose ponytail given how it almost fell to the ground itself. His eyes remained shut, yet his sense of sight was not hindered by this at all. He wore a circlet very similar to that of another certain Water Seraph, except the centre, there was the shape of teardrop jewel hanging from it.

"Maotelus, is there another reason why you choose Shepherd Sorey besides the obvious reasons? It almost seems like you've noticed something that the others have not yet." Amenoch asked their leader.

"So...you've also realized it, have you not, Lord Amenoch?" Maotelus gave Amenoch a soft smile.

"It is only an assumption, I will not claim anymore than that." Amenoch cryptically stated.

"Either way, Maotelus, you cannot be excused for this, the boy will still need to go through the 'Trials of the Old Gods', no matter how pressed we are for time."

"Will Shepherd Sorey even accept this? He had been thrown into this so suddenly and he does not even know of your decision yet." Hyanoa clasped her hands together.

"I'm afraid we will have to discuss how to break this news to Shepherd Sorey later. Right now, we have more important matters, such as the original Lord of Calamity, Mordred. My servant, Undine, had told me that she had recently come in contact with the Light Mana Sprite, Rem." Amenoch turned their attentions to matters that he deemed were more important.

"But...Rem serves the Seraph Lord of Light in Fayrule, correct?" Hyanoa asked.

"I thought the Fayrule Seraph Lords still held a grudge against our predecessors for what happened with Lord Innominat's disappearance. Why would one of their Mana Sprites be here?" Musiphe reminded them of the event that caused the Eight Seraph Lords to be split apart.

"According to Undine, from her run in with Rem, it would seem things in Fayrule has taken a dark turn. Apparently there is an unknown source of malevolence that it slowly but surely rotting away Fayrule from the inside, allowing the same disasters and tragic events of the Era of Chaos to occur. There had also been sightings of Primals, I'm very sure you all know that when Primals are involved, you know things have gotten very bad to summon them to the surface."

"What?! How...how could we have not noticed this for this long?" Maotelus rose up from his chair with horror written on his face.

"Our relationship with our Fayrulian kin had been strained since the Era of Asgard, so it is likely neither side has made the effort to rebuild the trust that was lost. However, there are new Seraph Lords governing the four elements on their side, from what Undine told me, perhaps Rem's arrival is a sign that now is the time to make amends, however, it could also be that Rem is here to find a Shepherd."

"Shepherd Sorey's halfway to being Seraph now, isn't he? Doesn't he no longer count?" Eumacia asked.

"No, I knew Shepherd Sorey would still be needed, so I did not fully complete the transformation, although I am sure his fellow Seraphs have probably noticed the small changes that had happened." Maotelus told them.

"Lord Amenoch, you said that there are new Lords now, just who are these Seraphs?"

"If I recall what Undine had reported to me, Lady Luxeria is the new Seraph Lord of Light, Lord Yoru, the Seraph of Darkness, Lord Rai, the Seraph Lord of Thunder and Lady Nym, the Seraph Lord of Plants."

"Hmmm, these are names I am not familar with. They must be young Seraphs." Musiphe stated.

"Regardless if they are inexperienced or not, it is clear that they are under-going a crisis, they are not prepared for. In the very least, I can do one final act as Seraph King before my Successor takes over, Glenwood for now is at peace, but if we do not address the problem within Fayrule, it will spread to our land once again. We cannot let Fayrule suffer for our past mistakes."

"At last, something we can agree on, Maotelus." Musiphe grinned.

"I'm in favour of helping Fayrule. Shepherd Sorey can be our eyes and ears while we help to narrow down the source of this outbreak of Malevolence. You have a link with him, right? So that'll come in handy." Eumacia nodded.

"I am also in favour of this. That grudge should have died out along with our predecessors. If Lady Luxeria had made the effort to reach out to us by sending Rem, it is only right that we answer that call." Hyanoa also vouched in favour of Maotelus' decision.

"I do agree that this source must found and eliminate before Fayrule's pureland becomes more tainted, the more the land deteriorates, the more the balance is shifted. That means more likely chance of the Primals to be called to take action to restore balance."

"Restore balance? You mean destroy the people of Fayrule?!"

"If it comes to that, yes. The Earthpulse will act in order to protect the world and restore the balance that's been shifted to one side to drastically, think of it like a knee-jerk reaction. The most likely culprit is most likely the humans of Fayrule, thus, if you remove them, the threat is eliminated. Of course, the Earthpulse only thinks on impulse, morality itself is a grey area." Amenoch told them.

"All the more reason to take action to prevent the chance of Primals ever being used. Both Seraphim and Humans alike living in Fayrule will be endangered or worse killed if even one of them is used, even if it's in self-defence." Musiphe shook his head.

"I agree. I know this better than anyone now." Maotelus smiled sadly. "Either way, we need to destroy this source so that the Earthpulse can equalize its balance and call back its Primals."

"Before we dismiss this meeting, I propose another idea that aligns with Maotelus's decision to choose Shepherd Sorey as his successor." Amenoch faced his fellow Lords along with his King.

"Oh?"

"If Maotelus is choosing a new successor, why not allow a whole new beginning with a new set of Seraph Lords to aid the new Seraph King? And I already know the right Seraph in mind to be my Successor."

* * *

Finally! This chapter is done. x.x

Wouldn't believe how many times writer's block struck me and how many times I had to redo this chapter. Didn't think this chapter would be so tough to work through. I hope that this chapter turned out okay for everyone. =3

Also wanted to note that even though TOZ and the new game TOB (Tales of Beserira) are based in the same universe, in this fan fic, they are not connected. So don't worry, nothing will be spoiled (the game's only just come out of Japan this month anyway). There will be no timeline connection between these two games.

Okay, just wanted to get that out of the way in case people asked why I haven't any mentioned any past events that TOB might have revealed (since TOB is essentially the prequel to TOZ =P). Because in this fan fic, there will be no continuity between the two games. =3

We cool? Cool. =3

Anyways, til next chapter then, happy reading everyone, Moogle Empress out!

Moogle: Kupo!


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